VOICED BY NATURE. 

R. T P. ALLEN. 






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IlHOEmiTT OF THE &KJ1 

VOICED BY NATURE, 


-A_3sr:D 



- -BY— 

REV. R. T. P. ALLEN, A.M., C.E., LL.D., 

Emeritus Superintendent and Professor of Natural Science of the 
Kentucky Military Institute. 




WITH AN INTRODUCTION- BY REV. J. H. YOUNG, Ph.D. 




Southern Methodist Publishing House. 

1887. 












\ 


sf-BK 

876 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, 
By R. T. P. Allen, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 




INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 


Undoubtedly the world is greatly indebted to the scientific re¬ 
search of the nineteenth century for the wonderful light it now en¬ 
joys in every department of study. The progress of the physical 
sciences during this period has been truly phenomenal, while other 
branches of learning, such as the mental and moral sciences, history, 
theology, etc., have been comparatively at a stand-still. The reasons 
for this are apparent. The physical sciences are based upon the postu¬ 
late of the continuity of law. All ideas of chance, or even of super¬ 
natural interference, have been rigidly excluded. This continuity 
of law, founded upon an induction as wide as the range of facts with¬ 
in the observation of man, has been the key with which science has 
opened many a door in the arcana of the universe. By it the observ¬ 
er is required to classify every phenomenon, and this classification 
is science. But theology, history, and cognate branches have not 
enjoyed hitherto the privileges of the inductive methods. Their 
conclusions have been reached by the natural process of deduction, 
and hence they have watched with jealous eye the advances of the 
opposite method. Viewed in this light, these sciences have been 
comparatively stationary for the want of new revelations or facts in 
order to institute new deductions. Theology in particular has al¬ 
ways been rather shy of the advances of science. Science would fain 
form a coalition with her, and hand in hand set out for the discov¬ 
ery of even the “ hidden things of God.” But theology has always 
treated these advances with distrust, and shown a positive unwilling¬ 
ness to acknowledge any obligations to the so-called discoveries of 
the human intellect. But, happily for us, the light is now becoming 
so strong that even the blind may see. The generalizations of science 
are throwing light even upon revelation, so that ‘‘ invisible things of 
Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 



4 Introductory Note. 

stood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God¬ 
head.” 

We regard the present age as the dawning of a new era in the 
science of theology. Men no longer seek for truth in musty tomes. 
The voice of antiquity is becoming too distant to be heard clearly 
amid the bustle and activity of a progressive age. Authority itself 
must give a reason for its dicta , or show that they are in harmony 
with established law. This is as it should be. Theology has no 
reason to fear the pride of human intellect. Let it but keep abreast 
of the spirit of the age, and it will command the respect of every 
thinking mind. It is only when theology lags behind, in company 
with ignorance and blind superstition, that it provokes the contempt 
of science. It has long been the complaint of theologians that sci¬ 
ence seeks to reduce every thing to the crucible of experiment. This 
“crucible of experiment ” is a very indefinite phrase; but if it is 
meant that all facts or truths should be subjected to a thorough ex¬ 
amination to demonstrate the presence or absence of law, then give 
us the “ crucible ” all the time. 

He who is accustomed to observing the “ signs of the times ” has 
not failed to note the fact that after so long and bitter oppression 
theology is at last availing itself of the postulates of science in the 
demonstration even of fundamental truths. We might adduce the 
works of the Duke of Argyll, Henry Drummond, and a host of others 
in evidence of this fact. We owe these pioneers in this new field of 
theological investigation our profoundest gratitude. 

And why should we not avail ourselves of every means afforded 
us of demonstrating the truth of our holy religion? If science can 
give us any help, then why despise it? The laws of God are eter¬ 
nally the same, and are never in conflict with each other, whatever 
may be the form of their expression. Call them “ laws of nature ” 
or “laws of grace,” it matters not; they are but different expressions 
of the same principles pervading all things. If science can, by its 
inductions, discover to us the mode of action of any principle or law 
in the natural world, we may not be surprised to observe the same 


Introductory Note . 


5 


mode of operation in what is called the spiritual world. If we find 
it will not work, something is wrong either with the induction or 
with our received theology. Seek, then, for the truth. Surely we 
have nothing to gain by the establishment of a false theology any 
more than a false science. What we want is the truth, whenceso¬ 
ever it may come. The time has come for the Church to cease re¬ 
garding all scientists as incarnate demons seeking her disruption 
and ruin. They have more than once proven to be her best friends. 

Many of the so-called “conflicts” of science and religion have al¬ 
ready fallen in line with accepted truth, and are now employed in 
the inculcation of the faith of the gospel of Christ. The God of nat¬ 
ure is the Gpd of revelation. He has revealed his glory not only 
through the word of inspiration, but he makes the “ heavens de¬ 
clare” the same, and the “firmament to show his handiwork.” 
Science and religion are therefore inseparable. “ What God has 
joined together” let no man with ignorant presumption “put asun¬ 
der.” Theology is everywhere beginning to recognize this truth, 
and in consequence the same old doctrines of revelation stand out 
before us in clearer light. Nor is this light the less valuable in that 
it enables us to distinguish between the opinions of men and the 
truth of God. What in the twilight of our knowledge we fondly 
supposed to be living verities are now known to be only the em¬ 
balmed mummies of tradition, while the real truths of revelation ap¬ 
pear with even greater certainty. 

For these results we are largely indebted to that class of scientific 
theologians who have fearlessly applied the inductions of science in 
support of the evidences of Christianity—a class, we are glad to see, 
which is everywhere rapidly increasing. They are the hope of the 
Church for the future. To them we must look for the rational de¬ 
fense and the establishment of our faith, for the world has passed the 
stage of childhood, and no longer accepts authority unless accompa¬ 
nied with the why. We welcome, therefore, the appearance of every 
such light upon the intellectual horizon, assured as we are that re¬ 
ligion has every thing to gain and nothing to lose. 


6 


Introductory Note. 


It is really a question to what extent theology is responsible for 
its so-called conflicts with science. Many facts which formerly were 
regarded as diametrically opposed to revelation are now among the 
props of our faith. And it may be that what now appears to us the 
noise of battle between the contending hosts shall prove in the light 
of the coming day but the soughing of the bellows and the clang of 
the hammers forging for us a citadel of impregnable truth. But still 
there are probably as many scientists who are ignorant of theology 
as there are theologians who are ignorant of science, and there is 
little doubt that along the line of this mutual ignorance most of our 
“ conflicts ” come. The better they become known to each other 
the more hope of a permanent union. As already intimated, many 
of the greatest minds in both of these departments of study are now 
endeavoring to encompass this end. Through their combined ef¬ 
forts we may yet learn that there are many great truths in the uni¬ 
verse of God never before dreamed of in our philosophy. 

And now in this same general line comes the present volume. 
We hail it with greatest pleasure, and bespeak for the author a 
gracious reception at the hands of the reading public. We feel a 
peculiar pride and pleasure in this work, coming as it does from our 
old friend and preceptor in the things of God. Of the author’s abil¬ 
ity and fitness for the task he has essayed, the book itself is evidence. 
Gifted by nature and by grace, he has brought to this undertaking a 
mind well stored with facts and a heart filled with love to God and 
man. An earnest Christian, a progressive theologian, and a prac¬ 
tical scientist, he unites the qualifications necessary for the faithful 
investigation of the subjects he has in hand. In many respects the 
field of his investigations is entirely new. He explores territory but 
faintly outlined by those who have gone before. But his tread is 
confident, and the result of his work such as to command the respect¬ 
ful and serious attention of all thoughtful readers. 

Perhaps it would be too much to say that all of the author’s con¬ 
clusions will meet with universal assent. That has rarely, if ever, been 
the fortune of any book. But we may say we doubt not the reader 


Introductory Note , 


7 


will feel the grasp of a master-mind at every step. Whatever es¬ 
timate he may place upon the positions assumed or proven, he will 
be struck with the author’s honest, patient, and reverential search 
for the truth. Truth is eternal, and by it alone the glory of God 
and the welfare of man are conserved. 

May the book gain the wide circulation it richly deserves! 


J. H. Young. 


Winchester, Ky. 











PREFACE. 

During the summer of 1885 the author read a notice of a lecture 
delivered before an assembly of ministers of the gospel, in which 
the lecturer was represented as saying that “ nature gives no shred 
of evidence of the immortality of the soul.” 

He was astounded at the assertion. “Can it be possible,” he thought, 
“that an assembly of gentlemen, supposed to be men of culture, could 
allow such an assertion to pass unchallenged ? ” 

For many years he had taught his classes that nature, or the God 
of nature, had impressed upon each one of his creatures features that 
infallibly pointed out its destiny in the divine intention; and if this 
be true, if it be a universal law, then nature must unmistakably 
point out man’s destiny. 

The following work is the result of his investigations in that line 
of thought. He has, it will be seen, made large use of such works 
as fell under his observations containing matter germane to this line 
of thought, as those of Mr. Herbert Spencer, the Duke of Argyll’s 
“Reign of Law,” “The Unseen Universe,” Drummond’s “Natural 
Law in the Spiritual World,” “The Vestiges of Creation,” Bush- 
nell’s “Nature and the Supernatural,” and the geological works of 
Dana and LeConte. 

If the work shall in any degree help to stem the appalling tide of 
skepticism that threatens to overwhelm the nation’s most precious 
interests, he will be more than satisfied. 

The Author. 

Farmdale, Ky. 
















I 





































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INTRODUCTION. 


Tendency of Science. The tendency of this scientific age 
is to ignore every thing that cannot be brought to the test 
of the senses, or be directly deduced from the phenomena 
of matter or the forces proceeding therefrom. This clearly 
leads to a bald skepticism of all existences outside of the 
visible universe. 

If any thing whatever be brought to the attention of the 
man of science that cannot be stated in the terms of his 
present knowledge, “he shakes his head and turns aside.” 
He forgets that in his exploration of nature, in whatever 
direction, he is presently brought to a halt by an impen¬ 
etrable wall, beyond which he cannot but know there 
must be forces, or entities, or both, acting upon things on 
his side of the wall, thus demonstrating their existence, while 
their nature is, and perhaps must forever be, beyond the 
reach of his utmost endeavor, and therefore not to he stated 
in the terms of the rest of his knowledge. 

It is the purpose of the author, in the following pages, to 
inquire into the justness of this attitude of the scientific 
mind, and to endeavor to ascertain if other things beyond 
the merely sensible do not appropriately, even scientifically, 
claim the earnest, the most profound attention of the scien¬ 
tist while in search of the truth. We take it that no sane 
man would be content'to build his house, the guard of all 
his treasures, upon falsehood, sure that the coming storm, 
which is to try all things, would inevitably sweep it away 
and leave only wreck and ruin behind. We must desire 
above all else to ascertain the exact truth, and if this be 


12 


Introduction. 


not ascertainable, then to get as near to it as we possibly 
can. 

The questions that it would seem should be nearest the 
heart of every sane man are: “ What is to be my destiny? 
Who and what am I, and why am I here, and whither am 
I bound ? ” In other words, to find out, if he may, man’s 
true place in nature—that is, to find out in regard to him¬ 
self the whence and the whither , and how far the whither may 
be affected by his conduct in the present. 

Now, the author is confident that nature herself, if rightly 
questioned, will give an intelligible answer to these impor¬ 
tant questions, and that we may thus arrive at a reasonable 
certainty in the matter. In this investigation the author 
will confine himself, as well as he may, to what he sees in 
nature, and telling what he hears from her. But before 
proceeding to a direct consideration of the subject before 
us, let us test the reasonableness of the scientist’s position, 
that if his attention be invited to any thing that “ cannot be 
stated in terms of the rest of his knowledge, he shakes his 
head and turns aside.” (Frederic Harrison.) 

Let us suppose that in the mineral world some crystal 
is possessed of life and reason. And why not? for do not 
some scientists suppose that life of some sort resides in mere 
matter? This crystal of which we speak has become ac¬ 
quainted with the laws of matter, with the properties of all 
the elements, has observed the laws of chemism, and has 
proved his science from the multitude of phenomena about 
him. 

There is no such thing as self-motion in his science; it has 
not entered into his vocabulary. You propose to tell him 
about a higher life than he has known, of plants and ani¬ 
mals which have never come within the cognition of his 
mineral senses. He “ cannot state them in the terms of the rest 
of his knowledge, and so he shakes his head and turns aside.” 


Introduction. 


13 


Again, perhaps, some plant may have sensation, a degree of 
thought and faculty of observation; at least, we may sup¬ 
pose it possible that it has mastered all the phenomena of 
the vegetable world, and constructed its science of botany; 
has attained to a knowledge of all the laws of plant life, both 
morphological and physiological. You go to it—a rose, 
say—and propose to tell of self-moving things, which see, 
hear, smell, taste, and have great happiness in their 
life. It will answer: “ In science neither minerals nor 
plants have any such properties. Here, just here, I began to 
be, and here I shall die.” And it is so with all things in the 
world. I know the laws that govern all things, mineral 
and living, and when you propose to me things “ dispartate 
from the rest of the world, and that cannot be stated in 
the terms of the rest of my knowledge, I shake my head 
and turn aside.” 

As we would reply to the crystal and to the plant, may 
we not say to the scientist: “ Your science of the mineral, 
of the vegetable, and of the animal ignores the grand and 
glorious science that tells of universal being. Lift up your 
eyes and see evidences all around you of a Being unseen! 
Open your ears to the voices that come everywhence, tell¬ 
ing of the glory and the grandeur of a universe not open to 
poor, darkened, physical vision! Listen, O listen, to the 
grand chorus of halleluiahs to their Author that arise with 
glorious symphony from the multitudinous hosts of earth 
and sky. ‘ For the invisible things of him from the crea¬ 
tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and God¬ 
head.’” (Paul, in Rom. i. 20.) 

It has been stated in recent days “ that nature gives no 
shred of evidence of man’s immortality.” Now it appears 
to the author that such utterance has been made without 
due consideration, since nature most surely gives direct 


14 


Introduction . 


evidence of the strongest kind on the subject; such evidence, 
indeed, as to compel the true scientist to accept man’s im¬ 
mortality as a scientific necessity. This eyidence, at least 
in part, the author proposes to point out in the following 


CHAPTER I. 

§ 1. Nature. By this term are to be understood all 
things whatever of matter or mind which are in the visible 
universe, with their properties and the forces with which 
they act upon each other or are acted upon, whether from 
within or without it. And if it should happen (as is the 
fact) that entities exist that are not cognizable by sense, 
and yet are vehicles of force in the multitudinous move¬ 
ments of things, these must also be taken as belonging to 
the domain of nature. Thus the term includes all matter,, 
and whatever else exists, both of this earth and of all 
worlds, with all the phenomena connected therewith, all 
organisms with the life that is manifested in them; and 
since life in the organism often evidences the presence of 
mind-intelligence of various degrees, this mind also comes 
under nature’s domain, as declared above. 

It is not a question now of the liow , the what, or the why 
of things; in many respects these are inscrutable, and may 
ever remain so. Our concern is to contemplate these facts 
and their relations to one another, and to discover, if we 
may, the laws that govern in the orderly sequence of things; 
and these being ascertained, we arrive at a knowledge of 
science which presents to the mind—the intellect—the truth, 
so far as a knowledge of it is attainable in man’s present 
condition. 

§ 2. It must not be forgotten that when the scientist pro¬ 
poses theories to account for phenomena, however plausible 
they may be, however they may commend themselves to 
our judgment, yet an appeal to facts must always be made. 
If the theory be found to agree with all known facts, it may 


16 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

be provisionally accepted as true, or at least as probably 
true; but if the facts of nature do not conform to the theory, 
it must certainly be abandoned, and some other mode of ac¬ 
counting for things be adopted if possible. The appeal to 
experiment must ever be made where possible. 

History is replete with examples proving the proneness 
of men, even of the greatest thinkers, to error when theo¬ 
rizing from only a partial knowledge of facts. How often 
have conclusions been drawn in almost every branch of hu¬ 
man knowledge, only to be abandoned upon further investi¬ 
gation of the facts of nature! Theories that were very 
beautiful, very satisfactory to judgment for awhile, yet ut¬ 
terly repudiated — abandoned upon further advance in 
knowledge. With all due diffidence we claim the privilege 
of saying that there is much in the admitted science of the 
day that upon further examination will have to be aban¬ 
doned. 

It will be perceived that the author includes in the term 
nature all that is, visible and invisible, in this and all 
worlds. Whatever things the phenomena cognizable by 
man—whether of matter, of life, of mind—compel us to rec¬ 
ognize these things come under the domain of nature. 

§ 3. Science. A knowledge simply of facts as observed 
on every hand throughout nature does not constitute sci¬ 
ence. One might possibly be acquainted with all the facts 
of nature without any conception of their relations. Con¬ 
fused and confounded by the multitudinous mass of isolated 
facts obvious to his senses on every hand, let him begin 
to arrange these facts in classes according to their resem¬ 
blances; then he will find them arranging themselves in his 
mind in certain definite lines, until out of utmost confusion 
order arises, and finally a glorious cosmos stands revealed 
before him—the grandeur of an unspeakable beauty. This 
classified knowledge is science. Science, then, reveals the 
lines along which nature acts with unvarying uniformity— 


17 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

in other words, her mode of doing things. These modes of 
nature’s acting, her ways of doing things under ever-vary¬ 
ing conditions, are called laws of nature. These laws will 
not all be fully known nor science complete until all phe¬ 
nomena shall be known, and shall be arrayed in one vast 
circle, whose radii shall be the fully ascertained laws of 
nature, uniting all that is to its great source, the center. 

“ By science,” says Huxley, “ I understand all knowledge 
that rests upon evidence and reasoning of a like character 
to that which claims our assent to ordinary scientific prop¬ 
ositions. If any one is able to make good the assertion 
that his theology rests upon valid evidence and sound rea¬ 
soning, then it appears to me that such theology must take 
its place as a part of science.” 

Mr. Frederic Harrison says: “We say life and conduct 
shall stand for us wholly on a basis of law, and must rest 
entirely in that region of science where we are free to use 
our intelligence in the methods known to us as intelligible 
logic, methods which the intellect can analyze. When you 
confront us with hypotheses, however sublime and however 
effective, if they cannot be stated in terms of the rest of 
our knowledge; if they are dispartate to that world of se¬ 
quence and sensation, which to us is the ultimate basis of 
all our real knowledge, then we shake our heads and turn 
aside.” 

The author of these pages accepts with confidence the 
terms thus stated by these eminent scientists, and hopes to 
show that his theology must take its place as a part of 
science on the terms stated by the one, and so to place it on 
the basis of intelligible logic as required by the other that 
it shall stand on the basis of law fully entitled to regulate 
the life and conduct of all men. He hopes to show that his 
theology is in perfect harmony with, and not “ dispartate 
to, that world of sequence and sensation which to us is the 
ultiraatejbasis of all our real knowledge;” so that Mr. Har- 
2 


18 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

rison shall not be permitted, consistently with right reason, 
“ to shake his head and turn aside.” 

Yet we must not forget that close around all human 
knowledge there hangs an impenetrable veil of mystery; 
and that, as “ a science without mystery is unknown,” so 
“a religion without mystery is absurd.” Upon examina¬ 
tion it will be seen that there is not a whit more mystery in 
theology than in nature. The intelligent Christian can 
have no fear of science; truth cannot antagonize truth. 
No sane man would knowingly build the fabric of his hopes 
on error. If religion has no basis in scientific truth, we 
wish to know it; and then what? “Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die.” “ If in this world only we have 
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (A 
better translation would be most to be pitied.') 

§ 4. Laws of Nature. The idea of law in this sense must 
be carefully separated from the idea of force or underlying 
cause. In speaking of nature’s laws, we refer only to the 
orderly sequence of things — their mode or manner of 
being or acting—not at all to the causes of phenomena. 
These causes or forces that produce the orderly working 
or manner of procedure of things may be unknown—may 
be, in fact, beyond the reach of the human intellect, and 
yet the law be ascertained fact. 

Phenomena are objects of sense; not so laws. These are 
“ dispartate from the world of sense.” Phenomena—objects 
of sense—classified, reveal to the mind laws, which are 
thus matter of pure reason. Thus science is solely based on 
the establishment of laws, and thus itself becomes matter 
of pure reason. Phenomena-facts are important only so 
far as they go, when classified, to the building up of the 
fabric of scientific truth. Every fact, therefore, when clas¬ 
sified with related facts, goes beyond the domain of sense 
into the realm of pure reason. Every effort, therefore, to 
classify objects of sense, to formulate a science, is to assume 


19 


And C hristianity in Accord with Science. 

principles or laws which are themselves “ dispartate from 
the world of sequence and sense/’ since laws are discovered 
by purely mental processes. Phenomena, as said above, are 
objects of sense. Classify these phenomena, and you have 
a something not in the realm of sense. 

The ancients had no just conception of natural law; were 
occupied wholly with the phenomena—the discrete facts of 
universal nature. They never attained to a conception of 
law r . To them the world of visible things w r as not that cosmos, 
that glorious harmony of universal order, that it has be¬ 
come to us. The men of deepest thought—indeed, the 
philosophers of olden time—did endeavor to discover the 
order, the mode of nature’s working; but in vain, as wit¬ 
ness the fantastic theories invented to account for the 
phenomena of nature. It was not till the times of Coper¬ 
nicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton that the true order of 
the universe began to dawn on the human mind, and sci¬ 
ence to be established on a firm basis. 

But it must not be forgotten that these sages and their 
followers did not discover the causes of things, but their 
order of sequence only. Newton did not discover gravity. 
He made known to science gravitation , the law of gravity; 
thus the cause of gravitation is still unknown—a wonderful, 
unexplained fact, the cause of which is not only unknown 
but inconceivable—a law that first, in the human mind, in¬ 
troduced earth into the family of the stars of heaven. 
Thenceforth facts were only examined in reference to the 
establishment of law, and to this end the investigation of 
phenomena by scientists was subordinated to the establish¬ 
ment of law. Now we know all things to be under the 
reign of law—all thingsj visible and invisible, in all the 
universe. Of this we are assured, and herein securely rest. 

All nature’s laws are a part of science, and all together 
they form the entirety of science; whence it will be seen 
that science itself is “ dispartate to the world of sequence 


20 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

and of sense,” and yet in it we stand face to face with 
truth, solid and unchangeable. 

The Duke of Argyle says: “The reign of law is the 
reign under which we live. The whole world around us and 
the whole world within us are ruled by law. Our very 
spirits are subject to it—those spirits which yet seem 
so spiritual, so subtle, so free. How often in the darkness 
do they feel the restraining walls—bounds within which 
they move, conditions out of which they cannot think. 
The perception of this is growing in the consciousness of 
men. It grows with the growth of knowledge. It is the 
delight, the great reward, the goal of science; and from 
science it passes into every domain of thought.” (“Reign 
of Law,” p. 55.) 

What then are these laws? Of some of them only we 
propose to speak, absolutely certain that the consideration 
of them will lead us logically to the end proposed—viz., 
the evidence of nature on the question of man’s immortality. 

But before proceeding in our discussion we lay down as 
an incontrovertible fact that the law of every thing in nat¬ 
ure, living and non-living, grows out of its properties, 
faculties, nature in constitution— e. g ., the mode of action. 
The law of each and all the elements is the result of their 
properties. It seems a mere truism, and yet the observa¬ 
tion is important in its bearing on our line of thought. 
Again, of every living thing it may be also affirmed that 
its law is coeval with its existence, determined by its form, 
faculties, constitution. Nature thus indicates its intended 
mode of life—the destiny of every living thing. 

§ 5. Matter. Of the real nature of matter science tells us 
nothing. That is among the impenetrable mysteries that 
surround us on every side. Of its properties only, the 
phenomena it presents, science takes cognizance, and for 
these properties we refer the reader to scientific treatises on 
the subject. 


21 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

The doctrine of the atomic constitution of matter is gen¬ 
erally accepted by scientists, and yet it is absolutely un¬ 
imaginable, since the human mind cannot grasp the in¬ 
finite, and the atom is infinitely small. Here, then, be it 
noted that scientists accept the unimaginable as fact, as they 
also do in many other departments of nature. 

Matter is supposed (not certainly known) to consist of 
sixty-six different elements, each of which has its own pe¬ 
culiar properties—laws, modes of action—while all are 
subject to the laws of matter as such. Each element has 
certain affinities for certain other elements, while indiffer¬ 
ent to all the rest. Now the laws of chemism are such 
that the elements always unite in certain definite propor¬ 
tions, and that if two or more elements unite to form a 
certain compound under certain conditions, then under the 
same conditions they will always and everywhere unite to 
form the same compound. Thus Hydrogen and Oxygen 
unite, under certain conditions, to form water, two atoms of 
H combining with one atom of O, as when H is burned in 
the atmosphere or in Oxygen, and they never unite directly 
in any other proportion. And when Carbon is burned in 
air or in O, one atom of C combines with two of O to 
form a molecule of (C0 2 ) carbon dioxide, and whenever 
Carbon unites directly with Oxygen it is in this proportion. 
And we have no hesitation in adding that, if elements unite 
otherwise than under these simple laws of chemism, sci¬ 
ence, to he true to herself, is compelled to recognize as present 
a force outside of matter compelling the combination. 

§ 6. In addition to this law of chemism, we propose to 
examine certain other laws of nature, as follows, seeking 
to find out at every step what they tell us (if any thing) 
of the how, the what, and the why of things: 

1. The law of gravitation. 

2. The law of catastrophe. 

3. The law of luminiferous ether. 


22 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature , 

4. The law of life, origin of, development of, etc. 

5. The law of conformity to type. 

6. The law of adaptation. 

7. The law of instinct. 

8. The law of continuity. 

In considering these laws of nature we shall find at every 
step the absolute necessity of postulating a force from with¬ 
out the visible universe, operating in nature, directing and 
controlling the forces of nature, co-ordinating all things ac¬ 
cording to the counsel of His own will; for it will become 
abundantly manifest, in the course of our argument, that 
this “ force that makes for righteousness,” as postulated by 
all scientists, possesses the attributes of personality. 

§ 7. Law of Gravitation. The statement of this law is 
simply that every molecule of matter in the universe at¬ 
tracts every other molecule of matter, and that the attrac¬ 
tion between masses of matter varies directly as the product of 
the masses and inversely as the squares of the distance between 
them. This is what is called the law of gravitation. We 
say attracts, but should rather say that the masses behave 
as if they attracted each other, since it seems inconceivable 
that such attraction should really exist. No satisfactory 
hypothesis as to the nature of gravity is known to science. 
Here we have a fact known, not to scientists only, but to all 
men, exhibited in all things, which cannot be accounted 
for, the very statement of which involves the unimaginable. 

§ 8. Gravitation continued. It is the universal opinion of 
scientists, and must therefore be accepted as the doctrine of 
science, that the present condition of the solar system, and 
indeed of all systems, is the result of the orderly working of 
gravitating molecular and chemical forces. It is believed 
by most scientists that at some time in the remote past the 
matter that constitutes the sun, with all his attendant plan¬ 
ets and their satellites, was in a nebulous condition, occu¬ 
pying the entire space within the orbit of the fartherest 


23 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

planet, and indeed extending far beyond, probably half-way 
to the nearest fixed star. 

Now the diameter of Neptune’s orbit is say 5,700,000,000 
(five thousand seven hundred millions) of miles, and if the 
nearest fixed star be 7,000 (seven thousand) times as far 
from the sun as Neptune, we would have this matter occu¬ 
pying (diffused through) a spherical space of say 20,000,- 
000,000,000 (twenty millions of millions) of miles in diam¬ 
eter, the nebulous matter being, as will be seen, of incon¬ 
ceivable tenuity. This matter would necessarily gravitate 
toward the center of the system—that is, toward the center 
of the sphere—and if no other motion were given to the mat¬ 
ter it would result in one central mass. It must therefore be 
conceived as having another motion—namely, of rotation 
from west to east. 

We may well pause to ask, Whence this rotation ? Grav¬ 
itation acts only radially, and could not cause motion per¬ 
pendicular to its own direction. We are aware that it has 
been ascribed to vortexes in the descending fluid mass; but 
these vortexes, if existent at all, would be local and separate, 
and whatever momentum any one vortex had in any one 
direction, there must necessarily result an equal momentum 
in the opposite direction, and the sum of all the movements at 
right angles to the gravitating force would he zero , while in 
fact the rotating mass must have had an enormous momen¬ 
tum from west to east. Besides, if we should admit the 
postulate of innumerable vortexes all in the same direction, 
it is inconceivable that the infinite number of vortexes 
should coalesce into a well-defined, uniform rotation of the 
entire mass. It would appear evident, therefore, that this 
motion must have been given by a force ah extra , even the 
will of an infinite power working with purpose. 

In view of the law of conservation of energy, it must be 
taken as the doctrine of science that all of the almost in¬ 
conceivable energy of the moving orbs of the solar system— 


24 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature, 

the energy of their revolutions around the sun, as well as 
that of their several rotations on their own axis, and of 
their revolving and rotating satellites—must have been res¬ 
ident in the first rotating nebulous mass; and as this energy 
was in direction of movement 'perpendicular to the gravitat¬ 
ing force, it could not possibly have resulted by vortexes or 
otherwise from that force. Hence, the necessity that sci¬ 
ence should postulate a force ah extra impressed upon the 
nebulous mass causing the rotation. This tenuous fluid 
mass contracting under the gravitating force, with rotation 
being given, we can trace in thought the evolution of the 
solar system as we see it to-day. Thus: As the mass con¬ 
tracted the rotation would increase in rapidity, the sphere 
taking the form of an oblate spheroid, until the centrifugal 
force (we choose to call it a force) of the outward equato¬ 
rial mass became equal to the centripetal, when that portion 
of the matter would no longer follow the inner portion of 
the spheroidal mass in contracting, its gravity being ex¬ 
actly counterbalanced by the centrifugal tendency or force, 
it would be left behind as a circular ring of matter, continu¬ 
ing its rotation from west to east; and unless this ring were 
homogeneous throughout, as it was not likely to be, it 
would break at some point—its weakest—and, drawing in its 
broken extremities under the action of gravitation, it would 
finally itself form an oblate spheroid revolving around the 
center of gravity of the system and rotating on its own axis, 
its rotation increasing in rapidity as it too condensed, until 
it in turn threw off the outward portion of its equatorial 
mass, thus successively forming its satellites. Thus was 
Neptune formed, and the rest of the planets successively. 

We said above that if the equatorial ring were not ho¬ 
mogeneous, as it was not likely to be, it would break at 
some point; but if it were homogeneous it could not break, 
but must remain a ring forever. And this actually hap¬ 
pened in the case of Saturn’s system, where two rings re- 


25 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

main much in the condition they were in when thrown off 
from their condensing primary, except being greatly flat¬ 
tened, as they must necessarily be by the forces acting upon 
their matter. 

We further notice that as the nebulous matter contracted 
and became more dense its heat previously latent became 
sensible; so that each planet, each satellite, would succes¬ 
sively become incandescent gas, and as the condensation and 
the cooling proceeded liquid matter, each and all of them 
at first self-luminous, too highly heated perhaps for the 
elementary substances to combine. As the cooling pro¬ 
ceeded these combinations would take place, and when a 
crust was formed, and the temperature of the surface fell 
below the boiling-point of water, the Hydrogen and the 
Oxygen having previously combined, the watery vapor 
was precipitated, and an ocean covered the cooling world. 
Earth was thus once a vaporous mass; then liquid molten 
rock, covered with a dense gaseous atmosphere and watery 
vapor; then by a boiling ocean of water, and cooling con¬ 
tinued until it has reached the temperature of the age of 
man. The moon has gone through the same process of ev¬ 
olution, until, being a much smaller body, she has already 
become a dead world. 

In support of this nebulous theory we merely notice that 
in parts of the interstellar spaces irresolvable nebulas still 
exist, where we may well believe solar systems are in the 
process of formation, destined to go through all the stages 
that have marked the development of our solar system. 

§ 9. It will be seen that this theory of the evolution of 
the solar system postulates a beginning in time. Matter 
cannot be eternal. It had,a beginning; there must have 
been a time when there was no matter. Other considera¬ 
tions amply confirm this conclusion; for instance, the worlds 
of our system are cooling; the moon is already a dead 
world; the earth and the other planets, and indeed the 


26 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

sun itself, must eventually become so. The sun’s temper¬ 
ature is maintained, not by fuel supplied, as some have sup¬ 
posed, but by his progressive condensation. He has now 
but about one-fourth the density of earth, whereas finally 
he must become far more dense, heat being given off as 
the condensation progresses. And, after a certain degree of 
the condensation, the heat set free will no longer equal that 
radiated, when his temperature will begin to decrease—and 
then? The beginning of the end. 

But if matter, subject to gravitation, be eternal, the proc¬ 
ess would already be completed; therefore, the evolution 
began in time. Matter had a beginning—“ nihil est nihil; ” 
therefore matter was made—created. Out of nothing? 
We do not know. Luminiferous ether, postulated by sci¬ 
ence, is not subject to the law of gravitation, while all 
matter is ; therefore it is not matter. It may have existed 
from eternity, so far as the above reasoning shows. It may 
perhaps be the substance (the word is used in its etymolog¬ 
ical sense) of matter, as it certainly is if the vortex theory 
of the material atom be true. We will consider this sub¬ 
stance further on. 

We remark that we are driven to this conclusion in re¬ 
gard to the eternity of matter by the very laws of thought. 
Since a process not yet completed, but progressing contin¬ 
uously toward completion, excludes the idea of eternity in 
the past as regards that process; therefore, we are forced to 
the conclusion that there was a period in the past when 
matter was not, when it began to exist as matter. 

Further, it has been well remarked that matter bears all 
the marks of a manufactured article, all its molecules 
being of the same magnitude, which is evidence of highest 
art, it being but recently that skilled artisans have been 
able to make the different parts of a machine so that they 
are easily replacable; so that, when a part, as a bolt or 
nut or screw, breaks, another is at hand to take its place. 


27 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

It may perhaps be conceivable that a multitude of beings 
have existed from eternity; but when we go further, and 
claim for them the relation of quantitive equality, rather 
that the infinite number of relations of inequality possible, 
our claim becomes manifestly absurd. We are then com¬ 
pelled to admit for them a common origin or cause. 

Finally, on this point we can only say that matter can¬ 
not be eternal. It was manufactured—made—and there¬ 
fore there must be a maker, a creator of matter and of 
all things. Whether the scientist can conceive of him or 
not, science is compelled to postulate his existence. 


CHAPTER II. 

§ 10. Law of Catastrophe. By catastrophe is meant any 
interruption of secular procedure by a change, more or less 
sudden, of the action of the forces at work, or rather of 
their relative actions, so that a new order of things or of 
procedure is introduced; as when, during the secular con¬ 
traction of the spheroidal nebulous mass, spoken of in Sec¬ 
tion 8, the centrifugal force became equal to the centripetal 
in the outer equatorial mass, that mass ceased its movement 
centerward, separating into a nebulous ring, breaking at 
its weakest point, and finally condensing into a planetary 
orb. And this happened in the case of each planet and of 
each satellite, in each case the operation of secular forces 
bringing about an equilibrium, after which there was a 
new order of procedure, all forces meanwhile acting regu¬ 
larly in accordance with law; so we see that there were 
as many such catastrophes as there are planets and satel¬ 
lites. 

And now, turning our attention to the earth alone, and 
observing the evidence of progressive development from a 
molten mass, surrounded by highly heated gaseous matter, 
to her present condition, we find evidence of the same law 
of catastrophe at every step. Thus, as the cooling proceed¬ 
ed, and a thickening crust was being formed, it was broken 
up by every tide in the molten mass, and the separate mass¬ 
es of the broken crust were piled up in ridges, as in arctic 
regions ice is now piled; and when the superficial heat 
became less than 100° centigrade, the temperature of boil¬ 
ing water, the watery vapor was precipitated, and a univer¬ 
sal ocean covered the earth—another catastrophe. And 


Christianity in Accord with Science. 


29 


then, under the action of internal forces, a portion of the 
ocean’s bed was raised in parts to the ocean’s surface or 
above, forming the nucleus of the present continental mass¬ 
es, while other parts sunk, forming the ocean’s bed. We 
have here catastrophe after catastrophe many times re¬ 
peated. 

And now, tracing the progressive development as deter¬ 
mined by geologic science from the archean successively 
through the lower and upper silurian, devonian, etc., stra¬ 
ta, we find a secular procedure in conformable strata, in¬ 
terrupted by an upturning, then violent denudation, catas¬ 
trophe after catastrophe, and then other strata deposited 
unconformable to those below; another secular process, to 
be interrupted in turn by another catastrophe, and so on, 
many times repeated, as observed in every mountain region. 
This manner of procedure we find evidenced almost every¬ 
where in the earth’s crust, catastrophe ever following sec¬ 
ular progress, and as essential to the perfected development 
as the secular progress itself. For instance, let us consider 
what took place in the region on the eastern slope of the 
Appalachian chain of mountains in New York, Pennsylva¬ 
nia, Maryland, and Virginia. In this region, then under 
the ocean, strata were formed many thousands of feet in 
thickness, and this in a shallow ocean. There must therefore 
have been a gradual sinking of the sea bottom, the deposits 
being made pari passu with the sinking; but many of these 
strata are unconformable, so that there is evidence that 
there was an upturning after the deposition of one set of 
beds before the unconformable beds above began to be de¬ 
posited—a catastrophe; and finally there was a general 
collapse of the earth’s crust in that region, a crushing to¬ 
gether of strata over an extensive area, causing upturning, 
contortions, convolutions, foldings of strata, and that suffi¬ 
ciently sudden to produce the great heat requisite for the 
regional metamorphism, evidenced by the conversion of sed- 


30 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

imentary into crystalline rocks, and the more or less com¬ 
plete change of bituminous into semi-bituminous or anthra¬ 
cite coal—a grand catastrophe. 

Returning now to an anterior period in the earth’s history, 
we find, after a certain progress has been made in the de¬ 
velopment of earth under the action of gravitating molec¬ 
ular and chemical forces, that in the hitherto dead world 
of matter alone, life appears , no difference how (that will be 
considered further on); formerly there was dead matter 
only, now there is life —the most astounding catastrophe of 
all, since here is a new force introduced into the arena of 
action destined to work the grandest results of all in earth’s 
development. The whence of life is still the great puzzle 
of those scientists who are determined to ignore a personal 
Creator. Life having appeared, geology bears abundant 
evidence of continued development of organisms, generally 
(not always) from the lower to the higher orders of organic 
beings. And even in this development or evolution, if you 
will, the evidence goes to prove that the passage from one 
species to another was always catastrophic. Tracing the 
development, we note that, in passing from one series of 
beds to another series above them, there was ever a more 
or less complete destruction of existing species, and an in¬ 
troduction of new species—catastrophe after catastrophe 
many times repeated. Again, considering any one individ¬ 
ual of the innumerable hosts of living beings, its life is 
closed by a catastrophe—death. Again, as illustrating this 
law of catastrophe, we point to the geyser. Here we see 
the gradual accumulation of forces until they overcome the 
resistance, and then—explosion. Thus also in volcanoes. 
The mountain may have been quiescent for ages, while the 
internal forces were accumulating, until at length they at¬ 
tained a magnitude such as to overcome all resistance, and 
then there comes an eruption; so that in the geyser and vol¬ 
cano we see clearly the same law of catastrophe illustrated. 


31 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

This law is manifested also in the earthquake, often accom¬ 
panied by the sudden elevation or depression of extensive 
regions. 

Finally, to summarize, we see everywhere this law of ca¬ 
tastrophe evidenced, in separation of planetary matters, in 
unconformability of strata, in the outpour of lava-beds 
and of trap-rocks, in the vast dykes traversing extensive 
mountain-chains, in the introduction of life on our globe, 
in the destruction of old and the introduction of new spe¬ 
cies of animals and plants, in geyser and volcanic action, 
in earthquakes with the sudden elevation or depression of 
more or less extensive regions, and in the natural death of 
each individual organism. 

§ 11. Upon close examination it will be seen that in most 
of the instances of catastrophe noticed above there was cer¬ 
tainly no breach of law, but that the catastrophe in each 
case arose from the regular working of law, as in the sepa¬ 
ration of the planetary masses, stratification, elevation of 
mountains, formation of dykes, outpour of lava-beds, gey¬ 
sers, volcanoes, earthquakes, and in the death of each in¬ 
dividual organism; and we may well imagine (in fact, be 
sure) that in all the rest the working of natural law will be 
found, only under the guidance of a force that true science 
will be compelled to recognize in all nature, even the pres¬ 
ence of the Supreme Will, clearly manifested, it seems to us, 
in that all these multitudinous changes were directed to¬ 
ward a complete habitable world —seen especially in the cre¬ 
ation of matter; in the rotation given to the primeval neb¬ 
ulous mass; in such adjustments of the elements that the 
resulting atmosphere is perfectly adapted to both plant and 
animal life; in provision for such distribution of water 
through springs as is necessary to life, which necessitated 
supervision throughout all geologic changes; in the ar¬ 
rangement of the continental masses so promotive of civ¬ 
ilization and human welfare, and in the direction and con- 


32 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

trol of the development of living beings from species to spe¬ 
cies per saltum , as will appear further on. It must be 
noted, however, that reason cannot certainly deduce the im¬ 
manence in nature of the ever-acting Supreme Will at all 
times from those phenomena that make the action of that 
will necessary to thought, since the infinite One may have 
so established the universal order that each catastrophe 
would certainly take place when needed in the evolution of 
the world of things. 

§ 12. The*truth above affirmed is curiously illustrated by 
the operation of Babbage’s calculating machine as set forth 
in the ninth Bridgewater treatise. Thus: The machine 
was constituted of wheels, on the circumferences of which 
were engraven the natural numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. 
Now the machine in motion presents to the eye the num¬ 
bers successively, each exceeding its immediate predecessor 
by unity. “ Now, reader,” says Mr. Babbage, “ let me ask 
you how long you will have counted before you are firmly 
convinced that the engine has been so adjusted that it will 
continue, while its motion is maintained, to produce the 
same series of natural numbers? Some minds are so con¬ 
stituted that after passing the first hundred terms they will 
be satisfied that they are acquainted with the law, after 
seeing five hundred terms few will doubt, and after seeing 
the fifty thousandth term the propensity to believe that the 
succeeding term will be fifty thousand and one will be al¬ 
most irresistible. The term will be fifty thousand and one, 
and the same regular succession will continue, the five mill¬ 
ionth and the fifty millionth term will still appear in their 
expected order, and one unbroken chain of natural num¬ 
bers will pass before your eyes from one up to one hundred 
millions. True to the vast induction that has been made, 
the next succeeding term will be one hundred millions and 
one; but the next number presented by the rim of the 
wheel, instead of being one hundred millions and two, is one 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 33 

hundred millions ten thousand and two, the whole series 
from the beginning being represented thus: 

1 

2 

3 

4 


99,999,999 

100,000,000 

100,000,001 

100,010,002 

100,030,003 

100,060,004 

100,100,005 

100,150,006 

100,210,007 

100,280,008 


The law which seemed to govern this series failed at the 
one hundred million and second term. This term is larger 
than we expected by 10,000, the next term is larger than 
we expected by 30,000, and the excess of each term above 
what we had expected forms the following table, 10,000, 
30,000, 60,000, 100,000,150,000, being, in fact, the series of 
triangular numbers* multiplied each by 10,000. 

If we now continue to observe the numbers presented by 

* Triangular numbers are formed by adding the successive terms 
of the series of natural numbers, thus : 

1 =1 

1 + 2 =3 

1 + 2+3 =6 

1+ 2 +3+4 = 10, etc. Called triangular numbers because a 

3 





34 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

the wheel we shall find that for a hundred, or even for a 
thousand, terms they continue to follow the new law re¬ 
lating to the triangular numbers; but after watching them 
for 2,761 terms we find that this law fails in the 2,762d 
term. 

If we continue to observe we shall discover another law 
then coming into action, which also is dependent, but in a 
different manner, on triangular numbers. This will continue 
through about 1,430 terms, when a new law is again intro¬ 
duced, which extends over about 950 terms, and this too, 
like its predecessors, fails and gives place to other laws, 
which appear at different intervals. 

Now it must be observed that the law that each number 
presented by the engine is greater by unity than the preceding 
number , which law the observer had deduced from an in¬ 
duction of a hundred million instances, was not the true law 
that regulated its action, and that the occurrence of the 
number 100,010,002 at the 100,000,002d term was as 
necessary a consequence of the original adjustment, and 
might have been as fully foreknown at the commencement, 
as was the regular succession of any one of the intermediate 
numbers to its immediate antecedent. 

The same remark may apply to the next apparent devi¬ 
ation from the new law, which was founded on an induction 
of 2,761 terms, and also to the succeeding law, with this 
limitation only: “That whilst their consecutive occurrence 
at various definite intervals is a necessary consequence of 
the mechanical structure of the engine, our knowledge of 

number of points corresponding to any term can always be placed 
in the form of a triangle, thus: 

13 6 


10 


15 etc. 




And Christianity in Accord with Science. 35 

analysis does not enable us to predict the periods them¬ 
selves at which the more distant laws will be introduced.” 

We have given this curious matter at length for the pur¬ 
pose of illustrating that an apparent deviation from the ob¬ 
served sequence of things may remit from our ignorance 
of the true law of sequence, so that, for aught we know, evo¬ 
lution from species to species, without Mr. Darwin’s small 
variations, may have been the established law of living 
beings from the very beginning. 

§ 13. Law of Luminiferous Ether. Having considered 
thus briefly the progress of the world’s development, so far 
as effected by the known properties of matter, before pro¬ 
ceeding further in our inquiry we pause to consider a sub¬ 
stance, not of matter, the existence of which science has been 
compelled to recognize, although it is not in any way itself 
cognizable by our senses—viz., the luminiferous ether, a 
substance universally admitted by scientists to fill all space, 
certain vibrations of which so affect the visual organs of 
animals as to give the sensation of sight, certain other 
vibrations causing heat, others again giving the phenomena 
of electricity, with the accompanying phenomena of mag¬ 
netism. The ether, then, is to be regarded as the source of 
the forces so effective in all the operations of nature. Yet 
ether itself is not cognizable by sense. No man ever saw 
a ray of light—itself invisible, it simply makes visible . 
“ Whatever makes visible, is light.” (Paul.) 

Now what is this strange substance—this ether? It is 
not matter as we know matter. So much seems certain. 
Matter is atomic; ether is non-atomic. Matter, whether in 
the solid, liquid, gaseous, or radiant state, is discontinuous— 
i. e., there is space, empty ?pace, so far as it is concerned, 
between its molecules; ether is continuous. Matter obeys 
the law of gravitation; ether does not, otherwise it could 
not be uniformly distributed through space. Matter is 
impenetrable to matter—that is, no two particles of matter 


36 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

can occupy the same space at the same time; but matter 
does not exclude ether from the space it occupies. They 
are vacua to each other. 

Ether, then, is not matter, not being subject to the laws 
of matter; yet it affects matter, acts upon matter, is essen¬ 
tial to the very existence of all organisms, if not to the ex¬ 
istence of matter itself. (See the following paragraphs.) 
Here, then, science is compelled to recognize the existence 
of a somewhat—it knows not what—intruding and forcing 
recognition of its presence ab extra, so far as the visible 
material universe is concerned. 

It may be objected to the above reasoning that ether 
must be matter, since it is the bearer of force or energy to 
matter, and its vibrations set in vibration the molecules of 
all kinds of matter. 

We take this conclusion to be a non sequitur , since sci¬ 
ence tells us nothing, absolutely nothing, of what matter is, 
or of its relation to ether. We are equally ignorant of the 
real nature of matter—of energy and of ether—and there¬ 
fore cannot predicate of ether that it is matter, because it 
is the bearer of energy to matter. This assumption begs 
the whole question. 

We sum up the reasoning briefly thus: All matter is 
subject to gravitation, and hence cannot remain uniformly 
distributed in space. Luminiferous ether is uniformly dis¬ 
tributed in space; therefore, it does not obey the law of 
gravitation, and hence cannot be matter. 

Further, if ether be matter it must offer resistance to 
planetary motion, and earth must be drawing nearer to the 
sun, and thus the length of our year be diminishing. We 
need hardly say that no such diminution has been de¬ 
tected, even to the fraction of a second, within the historic 
era. 

And again, if ether be matter the length of our day 
must be increasing from the same cause—resistance to 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 37 

rotation from friction—but no such increase has been de¬ 
tected. 

§ 14. Life, Origin of. The introduction of life upon our 
earth has been the great puzzle to scientists. There cer¬ 
tainly was a time when there was no life upon our globe. 
Then life appeared. The how, the what, the whence, have 
been the great questions. The most prominent scientists, 
habitually referriug all phenomena to the forces of nature, 
working in regular sequence under the laws of matter, ad¬ 
mit of no explanation outside of the realm of matter and 
material forces. Did life, then, originate in the realm of 
matter? Can it be accounted for by the interaction of 
material atoms under the operation of known molecular 
and chemic forces? 

The question has been extensively submitted to the test 
of experiments. One party answered the above questions 
affirmatively, embracing the doctrine known as abiogenesis, 
appealing to the results of hundreds of experiments by dif¬ 
ferent observers as proofs of abiogenesis. Another party 
answered the questions negatively, appealing also to the re¬ 
sults of their experiments, which seemed to prove that life 
comes only from antecedent life, or the truth of the doc¬ 
trine known as biogenesis. 

It is not our purpose to discuss the question at any 
length. Suffice it to say that the advocates of biogenesis 
have been triumphant all along the line, and that now no 
true scientist will affirm the truth of abiogenesis. Huxley 
and Tyndall, the leading scientists of the age, declare that 
there is no scintilla of evidence that in our day life has 
been produced where there were no germs of antecedent 
life; yet strangely enough they think, or seem to think, 
that in primordial days matter may have been in such a 
state as to produce life spontaneously. Upon this we sim¬ 
ply remark, if that be so, the elements have changed their 
nature during the progress of the ages, and the Hydrogen, 


38 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon (the chief elements of the or¬ 
ganic cell) of primeval time were not the same elements that 
we now find them; and what becomes of the regular unvary¬ 
ing sequence of things and the orderly working of nature ? 

Discussing this question, the authors of the “Unseen 
Universe ” say (pp. 229, 230) that “ dead matter cannot pro¬ 
duce a living organism is the universal experience of the 
most eminent physiologists—in fact, the law of biogenesis 
is justly regarded by Prof. Huxley and others as the great 
principle underlying all the phenomena of organized ex¬ 
istence.” 

Prof. Eoscoe, again, approaching the subject from the 
chemical point of view, says, speaking of red blood cor¬ 
puscles: “We have not been able, and the evidence at 
present rather goes to show that there is not much hope of 
our being able, to construct these granules artificially; and 
the case is in this position, that, so far as science has pro¬ 
gressed at present, we have not been able to obtain any 
organism without the intervention of some sort of pre¬ 
existing germ.” “ If we assume the truth of this principle 
it appears to lead us directly to infer that life is not mere¬ 
ly a species of energy, or a phenomenon of matter.” 

We take it, then, as settled in science that life comes only 
from antecedent life, and that it is incompetent for the 
forces of nature to produce life. These forces are all cor¬ 
related to each other, while none of them are correlated 
with life. Thus light and heat produce electricity, and 
again electricity produces heat and light. Electricity pro¬ 
duces magnetism, and again magnetism generates electric¬ 
ity; again chemism produces electricity and heat, and 
these again generate electricity. 

Then we see that these chief forces of nature are inter¬ 
changeable—may be converted into each other, and to an 
unlimited extent—while neither of them is correlated with 
life. Life, then, does not stand in the circle of these forces; 


39 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

they are transmutable. All energy is transmutable— life is 
not transmutable; therefore life is not an energy, but is far 
more, it is an entity , as we shall see more fully further on. 

§ 15. This result, it seems to us, might have been deduced 
by a priori reasoning. Thus: The organic cell of which 
all organisms are built up is composed of atoms of Oxygen^ 
Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon. These several elements 
have their natural affinities for each other, according to the 
well-known laws of chemistry, and in combining with each 
other, in whatever ratios, always obey those laws. Now 
nothing is more certain than that the organic cell is such 
an unstable compound that its elements are only held to¬ 
gether by the presence of life; bereft of this it at once be¬ 
gins to dissolve into its elements. Now it may well be asked, 
What is it that holds in abeyance the natural chemical affin¬ 
ities of the several elements, and compels them, despite 
those affinities, to unite to form the cell? We take it that 
only one answer can be given to this question—viz., the 
life force. We call life a force, though we hold it to be an 
entity exerting a force peculiar to itself. 

Again, an unstable equilibrium can only be maintained 
by a force external to itself; but the organic cell is an un¬ 
stable equilibrium, and when the life is withdrawn, the cell ? 
and the entire structure of which it forms a part, speedily 
falls to pieces, decomposes, is resolved into its element, the 
presence of life being necessary to the maintenance of the 
equilibrium. It would seem therefore impossible that the 
equilibrium should have been attained without the con¬ 
structor presence of life, since that would be making the 
result a cause of itself manifestly absurd. 

On this subject the authors of the “ Unseen Universe” say 
(p. 186): “ The body owes its delicacy to its chemically 
unstable nature; to a peculiar collection of particles, which 
certainly would not, by virtue of their own mere physical 
forces, have united themselves together as we find them in 


40 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

the body.” The life, then, is the builder of the organism, 
and not a function of it— i. e., proceeding from, and due to, 
the organism. “The builder of the house is greater than 
it.” (Paul.) We will return to this subject further on. 

§ 16. Some scientists, aware of this difficulty, and averse 
to admitting the introduction into nature of any force from 
without the material universe, ignoring the presence of the 
ethereal forces, which, as we have seen, are from without the 
material universe, have suggested that the life-germ may 
have been brought to earth from some other world by some 
stray meteor. With regard to this hypothesis, we remark 
that it only puts back one step the introduction of life into 
the material universe. And again, we remark that the liv¬ 
ing germ is destroyed by a temperature but little above that 
of boiling water, as also by intense cold, and that a meteor 
coming from the interstellar spaces must have been long 
exposed to a temperature near the absolute zero—273° centi¬ 
grade—and that meteors passing through our atmosphere 
with their planetary velocities are always heated to incandes¬ 
cence, a temperature far above that needed to destroy life. 
Thus are we driven to the conclusion that life was introduced 
into our world by that “ force that makes for righteousness ,” 
and if this be admitted, then it also must be admitted that 
that force is living, and hence personal —even the Supreme 
Will; and here we hazard the opinion that, as scientists have 
been compelled by observation of the forces ever recognized 
around them to admit the existence of a substance in nat¬ 
ure not subject to the law of matter, present always and 
everywhere (ether), so in the near future will true science 
recognize the presence of the Supreme Will in nature and 
above nature, manifesting himself by phenomena patent to 
every consciousness. So far as to the whence of life. 

§ 17. We now proceed to consider the nature of this life, 
he origin of which we have been considering: What is it 
in itself? Is it an entity —a somewhat entering into dead 


41 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

matter from without, lifting it into the world of organisms, 
and thus presenting to us the phenomena of the living, self- 
moving thing? or is it merely a function of the organism, 
having no existence of itself, being merely a phenomenon 
of peculiarly combined elementary substances, Hydrogen, 
Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, combined in an eminently un¬ 
stable equilibrium, maintained in equilibrium by the struct¬ 
ure thus built up, an unstable equilibrium made tolerably 
stable by its own effects? This appears to us contrary to 
all reason—in fact, absurd. The laws of thought seem to us 
not to permit such conclusions. Yet this is the conclusion 
of Mr. Herbert Spencer. If we understand him, his whole 
system of biology is based upon the conception that life is 
simply a function of the organism, and nothing more. We 
here remark only that upon this theory all living beings 
are machines, and can only act, move, think, and reason as 
the molecules of their structure move among themselves— 
a theory that antagonizes the individual consciousness of 
every man and woman in the world. 

Mr. Spencer defines life, on the basis of his theory, to be 
“the definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both 
simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with exter¬ 
nal co-existences and sequences;” or, “the continuous ad¬ 
justment of internal relations to external relations.” (“ Prin¬ 
ciples of Biology,” pp. 74, 80.) 

Now this definition tells us very clearly of the phenom¬ 
ena of life—what it does —but it does not even attempt to 
give us an idea of its nature. And we here remark that if 
life be merely a function of the organism—nothing more— 
there would seem nothing more to be said as to its essential 
nature. 

Further on we shall find much more to be said of its nat¬ 
ure, as deduced from the phenomena it presents to us. For 
the present, and from our stand-point, we define life to be an 
entity that from merely material substance builds up an or - 


42 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

ganism, assimilating to its structure dead matter, and produc¬ 
ing growth and reproduction; and we hope to show, further 
on, that this view of life is much more accordant with the 
phenomena prepented continuously by all living beings. 

§ 18. If we understand Mr. Spencer’s theory, as set forth 
at length in his “ Biology,” it is that vibrations are caused 
by the proper stimulants among the molecules of the nerves 
of sense (peculiar to each organ), and by them transmitted 
to the brain, whose molecules are thus set in vibration, and 
the results of these vibrations of the brain-matter are sensa¬ 
tions, perceptions, thoughts, etc. Thus the vibrations of ether, 
falling upon the retina, set up corresponding vibrations in 
the optic nerve, terminating in a peculiar vibration’ of the 
brain molecules, which gives the sensation of sight; or, 
rather, we should say, on the basis of this theory, is the 
sensation or perception of sight. And so of the auditory 
nerves, set in motion by the vibrations of the atmosphere, 
or other substances capable of causing such vibrations; and 
so of all the organs of sense. 

Now, if this be true, it would seem that whenever the 
vibrations of any nerve of sense are sent to the brain, that 
sense must be called consciously into exercise. Thus, when¬ 
ever the vibrations of ether cause vibrations in the retina, 
the person must see (have conscious perception of sight), 
and so of the rest; but this is well known not to be the fact. 
Something else is necessary to conscious perception—viz., 
attention. How often does it happen that with eyes wide 
open one does not see f We say does not see, because we 
maintain that a consciousness of the thing seen is essential 
to sight; and, in fact, all the senses are appealed to, without 
cognition of sensation. It is common in battle for the com¬ 
batant to receive deadly wounds without being aware of the 
fact, because the attention was absorbed in other directions.* 

* If life be merely a function of structured matter and mind —the 
result of vibration of the molecules of the brain—then mind, being 



43 


And Christianity in Accord v'ith Science. 

Besides, what is known as uncons clous cerebration * * is rec¬ 
ognized as a fact by all scientists, and it is well known that 
by it difficult equations have been worked out and problems 
solved, to the solution of which the person had been incom¬ 
petent when his attention was directed to the investigation. 
Now all this seems to us utterly antagonistic to the theory 
that mind is the result of vibration of the molecules of the 
brain. It is that, and it must be much more than that. 

And again, if Mr. Spencer’s theory be true it would 
seem that the sensation of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste 
would be impossible, unless the appropriate nerve of each 
organ of sense were directly affected by its appropriate cor¬ 
respondent from without. And if it happen in any case, 
or by any means, that one or more of these sensations can 
be produced without any such action upon the nerve set 
apart in nature for the production of such sensation, then 
it appears to us that Mr. Spencer’s entire theory must be 
abandoned as contradicted by the facts of nature; for this 
is pre-eminently an age of experiment, and when an appeal 
can be made to experiment, the result, where clearly man¬ 
ifest, must settle the question, must be an end of all dis¬ 
cussion. 

§ 19. An Experiment. Fifty years ago, as the author 
very well remembers, there was much discussion through¬ 
out the civilized world of what is known as mesmerism, 
and although it appears to have been ignored by scientists, 
or looked upon with contempt, some of its phenomena were 
of very great interest, as bearing upon the point now under 

simply and solely a phenomenon of these vibrations, must with its 
phenomena result from them, and hence cognition always accompa¬ 
nies sensation. 

* Unconscious cerebration proves that mind under certain conditions 
may reason and draw conclusions unconsciously—even more effect¬ 
ively —when free from the distractions that accompany conscious 
reasoning. 




44 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

discussion; since the mesmerized subject, when en rapport 
with the mesmerizer, frequently, if not always, was proven 
to possess the same sensations, of whatever kind, as the 
mesmerizer. 

As an illustration, the author, at that time (1838) a pro¬ 
fessor in Allegheny College, Pa., being desirous of arriving 
at some certainty in regard to the alleged phenomena, and 
distrusting the exhibitions made by traveling lecturers, de¬ 
termined to try the experiments for himself. Accordingly 
he arranged with Darwin A. Finney, a member of the 
senior class of that year, to come to his dwelling at 3 o’clock 
on a certain day, prepared to try experiments; and this is 
what occurred: 

Seating his wife upon a rocking-chair in a common sit¬ 
ting-room, w r ith her back to a window which opened upon 
an alley (in Meadville, Pa.), he made a few passes with his 
hands as he had seen lecturers do, and in less than a min¬ 
ute, observing her eyes to have a hazy appearance, he 
closed them, and called Finney into the room, and seating 
himself before his wife, touched with the end of his middle 
finger the corresponding finger of one of her hands. Finney 
came behind him, and reaching over his shoulder put into 
his mouth a piece of tobacco not larger than a pea (the au¬ 
thor did not use tobacco). His wife immediately showed 
signs of disgust, saying: “O don’t! O don’t!” “Don’t 
what?” “Why, you are putting tobacco in my mouth,” 
was the repty. The tobacco was at once ejected. Finney 
then in the same way put a small piece of loaf-sugar into 
the author’s mouth, when his wife immediately began to 
smack her lips, saying, “That is good.” “What is good?” 
“It’s loaf-sugar, but it tastes a little like tobacco.” Finney 
then placed under the writer’s nose a small smelling-bottle 
full of aqua ammonia, and removed his thumb, allowing the 
penetrating vapor to enter his nostrils. Immediately his 
wife threw out her hands, leaned forward, and exclaimed, 


45 


And Christianity in Accord with Science . 

“ O don’t! ” “ Don’t what?” was asked. “ You are pouring 

hartshorn on me,” was the answer. Finney then, going be¬ 
hind the author’s wife, took from a shelf a box of sedlitz 
powders, and held it up, when the author said, “Julia, what 
is that?” and received the answer, “It’s a law-book.” (A 
failure—mark the sequel.) The author then, desiring to 
test clairvoyance, said to Finney: “Go tell Tom to hide.” 
(Tom was a negro boy living with the family.) Luckily 
for our experiment, Tom went into the alley, and took his 
place behind a plank fence, by the alley gate, so that the 
author, looking over his wife’s head through the window, 
could plainly see his head and shoulders above the fence. 
The author then said: “Julia, I want Tom; call him.” 
“O there he is; you see him,” was the answer. “ Where?” 
“ There by the gate.” “Which gate?” “Why, there by 
the alley gate; you see him.” 

Being entirely convinced in general, and yet puzzled by the 
matter of the box of sedlitz powders, the author sent Finney 
out of the room, and aroused his wife by quickly throwing 
up his hands several times before her face, and immediately 
left the room. After perhaps five minutes he and Finney 
returned to the room and found his wife lying on the sofa 
asleep. On being awakened she seemed much confused, and 
made many apologies for being found asleep; and being de¬ 
sirous of ascertaining if she had any recollection of what had 
passed the author asked her if she had dreamed any in her 
sleep. At first she said: “ No! ” and then, after a pause, said: 
“Yes, I did. I dreamed that I saw a box of sedlitz pow¬ 
ders, and it looked so curious—S-e-d-l-i-t-z.” “And what 
did you call it?” was asked; and the reply was: “A law¬ 
book.” And after a pause, she added: “And I dreamed 
that I saw Tom , and he looked so curious. I couldn’t see any 
thing hut his head and shoulders; his body seemed covered 
by a cloud.” (The author could only see his head and 
shoulders above the fence.) 


46 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

Now the facts. Here was an experiment. Was it, or was 
it not, conclusive? She (thesubject) clearly received iden¬ 
tically the same sensations as the author. He by the usual 
organs; she through the nerves from the ends of her fingers. 
Either those nerves carried to the brain the same messages 
as the nerves of the several special senses, or else we must 
conceive the bodies of both mesmerizer and subject to be 
surrounded by a mental aura which is brought en rapport 
And in either case what becomes of the theory of Mr. 
Spencer, that the mind is solely a function of structured 
matter? The author appeals to experiment. Let any one 
who receives the theory of Mr. Spencer as accounting for the 
phenomena of life, submit the question to experiment, and 
he may settle it finally. The author is too familiar with 
men to hope that his experiment will have any weight with 
the scientific world, and has cited the facts simply as point¬ 
ing out to others how they may settle the question. 

And again, it is a well-established fact that some persons 
possess a faculty that enables them to cognize the thoughts 
of others when brought into contact with them, and are 
hence called mind-readers. Now it appears to us that if 
this be admitted in the case of a single individual, it di¬ 
rectly antagonizes the theory that mind is a result of struct¬ 
ured matter, and goes strongly to prove the truth of the 
author’s hypothesis of a mental aura as the habitat of mind 
in man. It must, however, be admitted that the whole 
subject is shrouded in mystery. There is much about it, 
as there is about all else of nature, that we cannot under¬ 
stand ; but it does seem impossible that Mr. Spencer’s molec¬ 
ular theory should be true, the facts manifestly bearing 
witness against it. 

§ 20. To our mind the facts recited seem to render it 
probable (we suggest it as an hypothesis) that the mind 
has a somewhat—call it a mental aura —pervading,.perme¬ 
ating, and perhaps enveloping the entire organism, but hav- 


47 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

mg its head-quarters in the brain-matter, with which it is 
somehow (we may never know how) intimately connected; 
that when this mental aura is affected, it matters not how, 
just as it is affected by, say the message sent along the op¬ 
tic nerve by the vibrations of ether called light, it refers the 
impression (from habit) to the same source from which it 
has been accustomed to receive similar impressions, and 
sight is the result. 

It may be asked that if the impression upon the organ 
sense be not carried to the sensorium in the brain by a mo 
tion of the molecules of the nerve, how is it carried thither V 
Before replying to this question, we ask how is the message 
sent along the wire of the electric telegraph, for perhaps thou¬ 
sands of miles, with a velocity of say 288,000 miles per sec¬ 
ond? Certainly not by a motion of the molecules of the con¬ 
ducting wire, but by the tension of the electric fluid (whatever 
that may be). Just so the message is sent from the ex¬ 
tremity of the nerve by the tension of that fluid or aura 
that we have supposed to pervade the nervous system, which 
fluid, if it be not electricity, is certainly closely correlated 
therewith. 

We point out that the slowness of transmission along the 
nerve does not prove that the nervous fluid is essentially 
different from electricity, since the velocity of transmis¬ 
sion of the electric fluid depends upon the conductivity of 
the wire, the poorer conductors retarding the transmission. 
Besides, it should be remembered that electricity, passed 
along the nerve, effects muscular contraction precisely as 
the message sent by the will does. And if it be further ob¬ 
jected that this view of the electrical force being under the 
control of mind controvenes the law of the conservation of 
energy, the reply is simple. That abundant provision is 
made in the organism for the generation of electricity by the 
chemical combinations and decompositions therein, and it 
will not seem incredible that provision should be made for 


48 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

storing up this electricity for the mind’s use, when we recol¬ 
lect that precisely this provision is seen in the electric eel, 
the gymnotus. Besides, the same objection lies in any case, 
since the mind does undoubtedly possess the power of setting 
forces in motion through the medium of the nervous system. 

We have given our views as above with the impression 
that Mr. Spencer’s theory makes the mind, the life, simply 
and solely a function of structured matter; yet it would seem 
that Mr. Spencer himself is not satisfied with that view as 
entirely satisfactory, for he says (“ Principles of Psychology,” 
Yol. I., p. 159): “ Mind, as known to the possessor of it, is a 
circumscribed aggregate of activities; and the cohesion of 
these activities one with another, throughout the aggregate, 
compels the postulation of a something of which they are 
the activities.” These words seem to recognize in mind , and 
hence in life , a somewhat beyond the function of structured 
matter. This somewhat is the entity which we have predi¬ 
cated of life. 

§ 21. Finally, in this connection, we perceive the life to 
be, not a function or effect of the organism, but the archi¬ 
tect thereof, as said before—an entity connected with and 
residing in a house itself has built, and which it keeps in re¬ 
pair by assimilation of material taken from without, thus 
providing for replacing waste material and for growth. We 
consider this life to be connected with the organism by what 
we have called the mental aura (perhaps a segregated por¬ 
tion of ether), by which it is able to control the movements 
of its house. And, until more fully informed on the sub¬ 
ject, this mental aura may perhaps be considered as 
the soul’s habitat, identical with, or allied with, the spiritual 
body which Paul, more than eighteen centuries ago, de¬ 
clared that men possess, telling us “that if our earthly 
house [the body] of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
[not will have] a building of God, a house not made with 
hands [not material], eternal in the heavens.” 


49 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

§ 22. Nature of Life continued. Before proceeding fur¬ 
ther in our investigation, we propose to consider somewhat 
at length, as being in the purview of our line of thought, the 
nature of life under the aspect of it presented by Mr. Spen¬ 
cer in his “ Principles of Biology.” Mr. Spencer writes as fol¬ 
lows (“Biology,” p. 74): “ Our conception of life becomes the 
definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simul¬ 
taneous and successive, in correspondence with external co¬ 
existence and sequences.” And on page 80 he says: “The 
broadest and most complete definition of life will be the 
continuous adjustment of internal relations to external rela¬ 
tions.” And in illustration he says: “ The actions going on 
in a plant presuppose a surrounding medium, containing at 
least carbonic acid and water, together with a supply of 
light and a certain temperature. Within the leaves Carbon is 
being assimilated and Oxygen given off; without them is the 
gas from which the Carbon is being abstracted, and the im¬ 
ponderable agents that aid the abstraction. Be the nature 
of the process what it may, it is clear that there are external 
elements prone to undergo special re-arrangements under 
special conditions. It is clear that the plant in sunshine 
presents these conditions, and so effects these re-arrange¬ 
ments ; and thus it is clear that the changes that constitute 
the plant’s life are in correspondence with co-existence in 
its environment.” And so in every living being. 

We simply take occasion to remark that the changes Mr. 
Spencer speaks of clearly do not constitute the plant’s life, 
but are simply phenomena indicating the presence of that life. 

Mr. Spencer, in his 6th chapter, page 82, says: “ The de¬ 
gree of life varies as the degree of correspondence.” “Al¬ 
lowing a margin for perturbations, the life will continue only 
while the correspondence continues; the completeness of this 
life will be proportionate to the completeness of the corre¬ 
spondence, and the life will be perfect only when the corre¬ 
spondence is perfect.” Again (page 88) he says: “As afford- 


50 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature . 

ing the simplest and most conclusive proof that the degree of 
life varies as the degree of correspondence, it remains to 
point out that perfect correspondence would be perfect life 
were there no changes in the environment, but such as the 
organism had adapted changes to meet; and, were it never 
to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, there would 
be eternal existence and universal knowledge .” (Italics ours.) 

§ 23. Following the line of thought thus clearly indicat¬ 
ed by Mr. Spencer, we perceive that where there are no 
correspondences, no adjustments of internal relations to ex¬ 
ternal relations, there is, there can be, no life. This is death. 
Thus in the mineral, as the crystal, there being no corre¬ 
spondence whatever between internal and external relations, 
there is death—the mineral is dead, a mere thing. And 
in the plant, the correspondences having only relation to the 
vegetal life, the plant is dead to the higher, the animal life. 
Thus also in the animal, the correspondences being solely be¬ 
tween the internal and the things in the external visible 
environment—that is, the adjustment of internal relations to 
relations in the material universe surrounding it—the ani¬ 
mal is, must be, forever dead to the higher life in the do¬ 
main of the spiritual. And in general the living organism 
of each kingdom is, and must remain, dead to the life of 
the kingdom above it. 

These principles might be indefinitely illustrated by ref¬ 
erence to individual existences in each of the kingdoms of 
living beings; but they are so self-evident that no further 
illustration of them is needed. 


CHAPTER 


§ 24. Having considered the origin of life upon the earth, 
and somewhat of its nature, thus briefly, and given in part 
our reasons (we will resume the subject further on) for view¬ 
ing life as an entity, and not as a mere function of organized 
matter, we proceed to examine, as briefly as may be consist¬ 
ent with clearness, the progress of the development of liv¬ 
ing beings, as witnessed to us by the records. 

Fortunately we have recorded in unmistakable characters 
in the strata of the earth’s crust the history of this devel¬ 
opment, both in the vegetable and in the animal kingdom, 
the fauna and the flora of each successive period having left 
their remains securely treasured up in the rocks, awaiting 
the eager study of the scientific explorer, the results of the 
exploration constituting what may now at length be rea¬ 
sonably termed the science of geology. 

Our limits will not permit us more than a very brief and 
perhaps imperfect exhibit of the laws of this development, 
nor is it consistent with the general purpose of this work to 
do more than this. 

These laws may be briefly included under the following 
heads—viz.: (1) From the simple to the complex; (2) ever- 
increasing specialization; (3) assimilation, waste, growth, 
reproduction; (4) generally —not always—from the lower 
to the higher organisms; (5) from species to species, with¬ 
out intermediate links. 

The first plants that appeared were sea-weeds, and the first 
animals probably the systemless protozoans, which consisted 
of a simple sack inclosing a structureless jelly, without or¬ 
gans of sense, absorbing oxygen through the inclosing sack, 


52 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 


which also served for a stomach, which was improvised, sur¬ 
rounding and inclosing such particles of food as came in 
contact with it. 

§ 25. From this low beginning the progress was generally 
—not always —upward, to higher and higher orders, in both 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The following table 
may exhibit this in a general way: 















































And Christianity in Accord with Science. 53 

From an inspection of this table it will be seen that the 
radiates, mollusks, and articulates began with the silurian; 
fishes, at the close of the silurian; reptiles, at the begin¬ 
ning of the carboniferous age, culminating during the sec¬ 
ondary and tertiary; mammals toward the close of the 
secondary, and culminating during the tertiary; and man 
at the beginning of the quaternary age. 

And that the same law of progress is seen among plants: 
Algce beginning with the silurian, and perhaps earlier; 
acrogens and conifers toward the close of the silurian, the 
former culminating during the carboniferous and second¬ 
ary ages. Cycas began early in the carboniferous, and 
culminated during the secondary and tertiary ages. Dicot¬ 
yledonous plants and palms began toward the close of the 
secondary age. Mr. Dana says: “Life commenced among 
plants in sea-weeds, and it ended in palms, oaks, elms, the 
orange, rose, etc. It commenced among animals in lingu¬ 
lae (mollusks standing on a stem like a plant), crinoids, 
worms, and trilobites,and probably earlier in the simple sys¬ 
temless protozoans; it ended in man. Sea-weeds were fol¬ 
lowed by lycopods, ferns, and other flowerless plants, and 
by gymnosperms, the lowest of the flowering plants; these, 
finally, by the higher flowering species above mentioned. 
The palms and angiosperms, radiates, mollusks, and articu¬ 
lates, which appeared in the earlier silurian, afterward had 
fishes associated with them; later, reptiles; later, birds and 
inferior mammals; later, higher mammals, as beasts of prey 
and cattle; lastly, man.” 

Thus we see that both in the vegetal and animal king¬ 
doms the general progress was upward, but w r e shall see that 
there are notable exceptions to this law. We quote from 
Dana: “Progress not always began by the introduction 
of the lowest species of a group. Mosses, although inferior 
to lycopods and ferns, appear to have been of later intro¬ 
duction, for no remains have been found in the carbonifer- 


54 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

ous or devonian rocks, although there are relics of both of 
the other tribes of plants. The earliest of fishes, instead of 
being of the lowest grade, were of the highest; they were 
ganoids or reptilian fishes. Trilobites found in the first 
fauna of the silurian are not the lowest of crustaceans. 
No fossil snakes have been found below the cenozoic, al¬ 
though large reptiles abounded in the mesozoic. Oxen date 
from the later tertiary, long after the appearance of many 
higher mammals—as tigers, dogs, monkeys, etc.” 

§ 26. Be it noted, also, that all along in the ages we find 
in the living species a prophecy of what is yet to come—viz., 
what are called comprehensive types. Thus, for example, 
ganoid fishes comprehend in their structure some reptilian 
characters. The earliest mammals were marsupials, em¬ 
bracing in their structure some characteristics of oviparous 
vertebrates, and were thus intermediate between them and 
true placental mammals. And this fact of comprehensive 
types is found exemplified all along in every geological 
era. 

Thus, in studying the organisms of the successive ages, 
we see always and everywhere a progress as stated above: 
(1) From the simple to the complex; (2) ever-increasing 
specialization; and (3) in every living thing the law of 
assimilation, waste, growth, and reproduction for the per¬ 
petuation of the species. 

The question now recurs, How was the development 
carried on? Was it by the potency of forces resident in 
nature? Have natural forces alone been at work, from 
first to last, all along the many lines of development? 

§ 27. Very many, perhaps the majority, of the scientists 
of the day answer these latter questions in the affirmative, 
adopting the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution —that by 
slight variations in species, during the long geological ages, 
the successive variations being confirmed and perpetuated, 
new species were successively evolved progressively, under 


55 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

certain laws, not necessary to be stated here, and that thus 
we may account for the innumerable species of organisms 
that live or have ever lived, from the fucoi and protozoans 
up to the highest phenogams of the vegetal kingdom, and 
to man, at the head of the animal kingdom. 

And it must be confessed that this beautiful theory ap¬ 
pears to our reason to be fully adequate to the result, 
except as to man. The only question is, Is it true? is it con¬ 
firmed by the records? Fortunately, the records of the de¬ 
velopment of living things on our globe are accessible to us, 
and, possessing authority to speak, their testimony must be 
received as conclusive as to matters of fact. We need 
hardly say that these records are found in the rocks—written 
in the fossils with which the rocks so abound. 

Now we point out that, on the hypothesis of small varia¬ 
tions, progressing along certain lines until specific differ¬ 
ences were attained, the rocks ought to record the fact, and 
specific lines should disappear. It should be impossible even 
to draw specific lines, they being quite obliterated by the 
gradual passage from one species to another, and this along 
whatever lines the evolution should proceed. 

§ 28. We need hardly say that the rocks bear distinct, 
direct testimony adverse to this evolution hypothesis—not 
here and there in certain strata only; but everywhere, 
throughout all the ages, the specific differences in fossils are 
even more distinct , more clearly defined in the fossils of every 
era than in the living fauna and flora. To this fact geologic 
science bears direct and unequivocal testimony, as illustrat¬ 
ed by the following plate: 


56 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 


We present to the reader on the opposite page an ideal 
section of the earth’s crust, representing the various forma¬ 
tions as determined by geologists, with some of the classes, 
tribes, and genera of animals that made their appearance 
on the earth in each of the several ages, so that the reader 
can see at a glance somewhat of the progress of life on the 
globe. We have represented in the dotted line A F/ 
ascending toward the right, the evolution conceived by 
scientists to have taken place from the protozoan to man. 

The letters A, B, C, D, etc., represent species in as¬ 
cending grade, the full short lines from the several letters 
toward the right represent the continuance of the spe¬ 
cies, and the dotted lines connecting these specific lines with 
the ideal crust show where in the crust each species 
will make its record. The several dots in the ascending 
line will represent the progress by gradual change from spe¬ 
cies to species, according to the Darwinian scheme of evo¬ 
lution. According to this hypothesis, let it be noted, there 
must have been innumerable links between any two 
species, and these intermediate links should be found in 
the rocks along with the distinct species. But they are not 
found. The inference is inevitable—they did not exist. Be¬ 
sides, the reader will see that this gradual rise obliterates 
specific lines; there should be none in the fossils of the 
rocks, while in fact specific lines are more clearly drawn in 
the fossil world than in the existing fauna and flora. 


•tion of the Earth’s Orust to Illustrate 


Vertebrate Life in America. 



Recent. 

Tapirs, Peccary, Bison, Lla- 

Quater- 

ma, Equus, Megatherium, 

nary. 

Mylodon. 


>•* 

Pi 

< 

E- 

PS 

r,' 


s 

<o 

.■a 




Equus beds.—Equus, Tapir- 
us, Elephas. 

Pliohippus beds.—Pliohip- 
pus, Mastodon, Bos. 


8 


Miohippus beds.— Miohip- 
pus, Deceratherium. 

Oreodan beds.—Edentates. 

Brontotherium beds.—Meso- 
hippus, Me nod us, Elo- 
therim. 


Diplacodon beds.— Epihip- 
pus, Amynodon. 
sj Dinoceras beds.—Orohippus, 
5 etc. 

Coryphodon beds.-Eohippus, 
Monkeys,Carnivora, Ungu¬ 
lates, Rodents, Serpents. 


CO 

S 

o 

w 


v 

< 

F- 

W 

tt 


o 


Lignite series.—Hydra Saurus, 
Dryptosaurus. 

Pteranadon beds.— Birds with 
teeth, Hesperornis, Icthyornis, 
Mososaurs, Pterodactyls, Ple¬ 
siosaurs. 


Dacotah Group. 


6 

8 Atlantosaurus beds.—Dinosaurs, 
2 etc., Turtles. 

S 


•2 Connecticut River beds.— First 
1 Mammals (Marsupials), Dino- 
£ saur foot-prints, Crocodiles. 


CO 

t> 

o 

ts 

« 

fc- 

55 

O 

» 

os 

< 

O 


Permian.— Radiates, Mollusks, 
Articulates, Vertebrates, Fish¬ 
es, Amphibians, Reptiles. 

Coal measures.—Reptiles, Sau- 
rians, Turtles, Spiders, Insects. 

Fishes.—Selachains and Ganoids. 

Sub-carboniferous.—First known 
Amphibians (Labyrinthodonts) 
Insects, . Sharks, Proto¬ 

zoans, Radiates, Mollusks, Ar¬ 
ticulates. 


I 


o 

o 

> 

o 


a 


Coniferous. 

Schoharie Grit. 

First known Fishes (in America.) 


55 

-5 

>—I 

Pi 

P 

P 


Upper S. 


Fucoids, Protozoans, 
Crinoids, etc., Cor¬ 
ales, etc.; Mollusks, 
Trilobites. 


No Vertebrates known 
in America, Fishes in 
Europe. 


Lower S. 


• 


Protozoans, Radiates, 
Mollusks, Articu- 

. 

© p 


s < 


lates, Crinoids, 

HH l-t 

Pi P 


Worms, Crustaceans, 

Ph 


Trilobites. 

ARCHAEAN. 









































































































58 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

The fossils foutid in the rocks prove that development 
was ever per saltum (by leaps), old species disappearing and 
new species appearing in every formation, more or less com¬ 
pletely. It seems to have been almost a law that the fauna 
and flora of each era were destroyed at its close, and a new 
fauna and new flora introduced * 

To this conclusion it may be objected that the links be¬ 
tween species may have existed in the period transpiring 
between the destruction of the organisms of one era and the 
beginning of the new era, but it must not be lost sight of 
that this period was always brief when compared to the 
long time transpiring during the deposition of the sed¬ 
imentary strata of any one formation; and the hypothesis 
is, therefore, inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of 
evolution. It may again be urged that only a small part 
of the rocks have been examined, and that we cannot cer¬ 
tainly conclude what a more complete examination of the 
earth’s crust may disclose on this point. This objection 
appears, it must be confessed, to be well taken; still it 
cannot be denied that the testimony of the rocks, as far as 
it goes, is unequivocally opposed to Mr. Darwin’s theory 
of the origin of species. It may be further observed that 
the homologous parts, found so generally among all an¬ 
imated beings, only prove that, however developed, there was, 


*Le Conte says in his “ Compend,” page 110: “But in specific 
character there is no such gradual passage of one species into another 
—no evidence of transmutation of one species into another, nor of 
deviation of one species from another. From this point of view spe¬ 
cies seem to come in at once in full perfection, remain substantially 
unchanged throughout their ranges, and pass out at once on the 
other border, other species taking their places as if by substitution, 
not transmutation. It is as if each species originated, no matter 
how, somewhere in the region where we find them, and then spread 
in all directions, as far as physical conditions and struggle with other 
species would allow.” 



And Christianity in Accord with Science. 59 

from the beginning, always system, observed by the devel¬ 
oping power or force, if you will. 

AVe quote from Dana’s Text-book, page 382, on this sub¬ 
ject : “Progress ivas connected with constant change of species, 
new species appearing as others disappeared. No species of 
animal survived from the beginning of life on the globe to 
the present time, nor even through a single one of the 
geologic ages; and but few lived on from the beginning of 
any one of the many periods to its close, or from one period 
into another. There were wide-spread exterminations, clos¬ 
ing the periods on each of the continents, and others, still 
less general, at intermediate epochs; and often some disap¬ 
pearances accompanied each change in the rock-depositions 
that were in progress; for in passing from one bed to an¬ 
other above some fossils fail that occur below, and from the 
strata of one epoch to another still larger proportions dis¬ 
appear, and sometimes with the transitions to rocks of 
another period or age very nearly all the species are dif¬ 
ferent. 

“ Of all genera of animals now having living species, only 
one, the molluscan, genus discina, had species also in the 
earliest silurian; unless the lingulellce, of the primordial, 
were, as formerly supposed, true lingulae. Every other 
genus of that early time sooner or later numbered only ex¬ 
tinct species; afterward, in the lower silurian, nautilus 
and a few others were added to discina. 

“ Such unbroken lines prove the oneness of plan or sys¬ 
tem throughout geological history. Nearly one thousand 
five hundred species of trilobites have been found in the 
paleozoic rocks, and in later formations none. Over one 
thousand species of the Ammonite group occur in the 
mesozoic rocks—the last there, or in the early tertiary, 
disappeared. Five hundred species of the nautilus tribe 
have been in existence; now there are but two or three. 
Over one thousand species of ganoids have been found 


60 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

fossil; the tribe is now nearly extinct. The remains of 
two thousand five hundred species of plants, and over forty 
thousand species of animals, have been found in the rocks, 
not one of which is now in existence. Thus the old has 
been ever passing away.” 

Forty thousand species of animal remains among fossils! 
and yet not a single link between these species! So much 
for Mr. Darwin’s theory of slight variations from species 
to species. 


CHAPTER IV. 


§ 29. Conformity to Type. The living germ of any an¬ 
imal or plant, when developing, always proceeds along a 
fixed line to produce an individual of the species of the 
animal or plant from which the germ was derived, and no 
other. An acorn never produces a chestnut-tree, nor a 
chestnut an oak; and so of all organisms. This heredity is 
called the law of conformity to type . 

We cannot present this law more clearly than is done by 
Mr. Spencer, from whose work on “ Biology ” we quote (page 
138). After describing the progress in development of a 
plant from its germ, Mr. Spencer continues: “The arm of 
a man makes its first appearance in as simple a way as does 
the shoot of a plant.” According to Bischoff it buds out 
from the side of the embryo as a little tongue-shaped pro¬ 
jection, presenting no differences of parts; and it might 
serve for the rudiment of some one of the various other 
organs that also arise as buds. Continuing to lengthen, it 
presently becomes somewhat enlarged at its end, and is 
then described as a pedicle bearing a flattened, round-edged 
lump. This lump is the representation of the future hand, 
and the pedicle of the future arm. By and by, at the edges 
of this flattened lump, there appear four clefts, dividing 
from each other the buds of the future fingers, and the hand 
as a whole grows a little more distinguishable from the 
arm. Up to this time the pedicle has remained one contin¬ 
uous piece, but it now begins to show a bend in its center, 
which indicates the division into arm and forearm. The 
distinctions, thus rudely indicated, gradually increase; the 


62 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

fingers elongate and become pointed, and the proportions of 
all the parts, originally very unlike those of the complete 
link, slowly approximate to them. During this bud-like 
stage the rudimentary arm is nothing but a homogeneous 
mass of simple cells without any arrangement. By the 
divers changes they gradually undergo these cells are trans¬ 
formed into bones, muscles, blood-vessels, and nerves. The 
extreme softness and delicacy of this primary cellular tissue 
renders it difficult to trace the initial stages of these differ¬ 
entiations. In consequence of the color of their contents, 
the blood-vessels are the first parts to become visible. Aft¬ 
erward the cartilagenous parts, which are the basis of the 
future bones, become marked out by the denser aggregation 
of their constituent cells, and the production between these 
of a hyaline substance, which unites them into a translucent 
mass. When first perceptible the muscles are gelatinous, 
pale-yellowish, transparent, and indistinguishable from 
their tendons. The various other tissues of which the arm 
consists, beginning with very faintly marked differences, 
become day by day more definite in their outlines and ap¬ 
pearances. In like manner the units composing these tis¬ 
sues severally assume increasingly specific characters. The 
fibers of muscle, at first made visible in the midst of their 
gelatinous matrix only by immersion in alcohol, grow more 
numerous and distinct; and by and by they begin to exhibit 
transverse stripes. The bone-cells put on by degrees their 
curious structure of branching canals; and so in their re¬ 
spective ways, with the units of the skin and the rest. 
Thus in each of the organic kingdoms we see this change 
from an incoherent and indefinite homogenity to a coher¬ 
ent and definite heterogenity illustrated in a quadruple 
way.” 

§ 30. No fact in nature is better known than this law of 
conformity to type: The germ of any organism whatever, 
under proper conditions, will always develop into an indi- 


63 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

vidual of the species from which it proceeds. There must 
therefore be as wide a difference between the germs as there 
is between the species—between the living germ of the 
acorn and of the elephant as between the oak and the ele¬ 
phant. Now, wherein this difference? Is it in the matter 
of the germ, or in its life? If it be in the matter that the 
directive force resides, it would seem that it must consist in 
the structure of the molecules, and that infinitely small 
simulacra of all that shall possibly proceed from that germ 
must be hidden there. But what does this mean ? It means 
that in the germ of the acorn are contained the simulacra 
of the oak that shall proceed from it, and of all the acorns 
that oak shall bear, and further of all the oaks those acorns 
shall produce; and as from a single acorn all the forests of 
earth may be filled with oaks, it means that all these are 
contained, fold within fold, millions of times repeated, in 
the germ of a single acorn. An hypothesis manifestly ab¬ 
surd. 

Let us consider this germ a moment. What is it ? In the 
case of any organism it is a speck of jelly-like substance, 
similar to albumen, or the white of an egg. Scientists call 
it protoplasm. Not only does the germ consist of protoplasm, 
but with it the entire organism is built up. This protoplasm, 
so far as science can determine, is absolutely structureless. 
And what is very surprising the protoplasm of all plants is 
identical—examined by the chemists, its molecules are 
composed of the same elements, combined in the same pro¬ 
portion; placed under the microscope no difference is dis¬ 
cernible. And still more surprising is the fact that the pro¬ 
toplasm of all living beings is identical. The germ of the 
acorn, of the grain of corn, and the ovule of the worm, the 
bird, the fish, the elephant—nay, of man himself—are so 
identical that science cannot distinguish between them, can¬ 
not tell which is which. It would be incredible were we not 
assured of the fact. However the germs are to develop, 


64 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

into whatever diverse and strange forms, whether distined to 
grow into the sturdy oak to withstand the storms of centu¬ 
ries, to adorn a lady’s flower-garden as the rose or the lily, 
to creep or fly, to walk or swim. They are absolutely the 
same so far as science can determine. 

Protoplasm is composed of Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, 
and Carbon, and of it Mr. Huxley says: “ Protoplasm, sim¬ 
ple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life; it is the clay 
of the potter.” “Beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, 
worm, and polyp are all composed of structural units of the 
same character—namely, masses of protoplasm with a nu¬ 
cleus.” (“Lay Sermons,” 6th ed., pp. 127-129.) 

What, then, determines the difference between different 
animals? What makes one little speck of protoplasm grow 
into an elephant, and another exactly the same into a man? 
It must be a mysterious something that has entered into 
this protoplasm. No eye can see it, no science can define 
it. There is a different something for the elephant and a 
different something for the man; so that, though both use 
the same matter, they build it up in these widely different 
ways. Protoplasm being the clay, this something is the 
potter. And as there is but one clay, and yet all these cu¬ 
rious forms are developed out of it, it follows necessarily 
that the difference lies in the potters. There must be, in fact, 
as many potters as there are forms, and, since the individu¬ 
als of the same species differ by heredity, as many potters as 
there are individuals. 

To understand unmistakably that it is really the potter 
that does the work, let us follow a description of the process 
as observed by Mr. Huxley. Through the tube of his mi- 
scroscope he is watching the development out of a speck of 
protoplasm of one of the most common animals. “ Strange 
possibilities,” he says, “lie dormant in that semi-fluid 
globule. Let a moderate degree of warmth reach its wa¬ 
tery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so 


65 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

rapid, and yet so steady and purpose-like in their succession, 
that one can only compare them to those operated by a 
skilled modeler upon a formless lump of clay. As with an 
invisible trowel the mass is divided and subdivided into 
smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced to an ag¬ 
gregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest 
fragments of the nascent organism. And then it is as if a 
delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spi¬ 
nal column, and molded the contour of the body, pinch¬ 
ing up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fash¬ 
ioning flank and limb into due proportions in so artistic a 
way that after watching the process hour by hour one is 
almost instinctively possessed by the notion that some more 
subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would show the hid¬ 
den artist with his plan before him striving with skillful 
manipulation to perfect his work.” (“ Lay Sermons,” 6th ed., 

p. 161.) 

§ 31. In view of the whole subject, then, we affirm with 
great certainty that the directive force in organic develop¬ 
ment resides, not in the matter, structured or otherwise, but 
in the life that resides in the protoplasm, and that there¬ 
fore the life cannot be a function of that which it con¬ 
structs—it is the cause , not the result, of organic structures. 
And hence we confidently confirm that it is an entity that 
builds its home according to a plan stamped upon itself— 
the organism being simply an incarnation of the resident 
life. We conclude this paragraph by simply adding that 
nature has no protoplasm unconnected with life. 

§ 32. The scientific law by which all this takes place is 
the law of conformity to type . It is contained, to a large ex¬ 
tent, in the ordinary law of heredity; or it may be consid¬ 
ered as another way of stating what Darwin calls “ the law 
of unity of type.” Darwin defines it thus: “ By unity of 
type is meant that fundamental agreement in structure 
which we see in organic beings of the same class, and which 
5 


66 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

is quite independent of their habits of life.”* (“ Origin of 
Species,” p. 166.) 

§ 33. In further support of our views of this subject, we 
insert an extract from the “Encyclopedia Britannica:” “Thus 
molecular science sets us face to face with physiological 
theories. It forbids the physiologist from imagining that 
structural details of infinitely small dimensions can furnish 
an explanation of the infinite variety which exist in the 
properties and functions of the most minute organisms. 

“A microscopic germ is, we know, capable of development 
into a highly organized animal. Another germ, equally mi¬ 
croscopic, becomes, w r hen developed, an animal of a totally 
different kind. Do all the differences, infinite in number, 
which distinguish the one animal from the other arise each 
from some difference in the structure of the respective germs? 
Even if we admit this as possible, we shall be called upon 
by the advocates of pangenesis to admit still greater mar¬ 
vels. For the microscopic germ, according to this theory, 
is no mere individual, but a representative body containing 
members collected from every rank of the long-drawn ram¬ 
ification of the ancestral tree; the number of these mem¬ 
bers being amply sufficient, not only to furnish the heredi¬ 
tary characteristics of every organ of the body, and every 
habit of the animal from birth to death, but also to afford 
a stock of latent granules to be passed on in an inactive 
state from germ to germ, till at last the ancestral peculiar¬ 
ity which it represents is revived in some remote descend¬ 
ant. 

“ Some of the exponents of this theory of heredity have 
attempted to elude the difficulty by placing a whole world 

* Clearly erroneous. “The fundamental agreement in structure” 
is not independent of their habits of life, but indicates and necessitates 
those habits, as we shall see when we come to consider the law of 
adaptation and instinct, and as might be indefinitely illustrated in 
considering any one species of animals. 





67 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

of wonders within a body so small and so devoid of visi¬ 
ble structure as a germ, by using the phrase ‘ structureless 
germ.’ 

“ Now one material system can differ from another only in 
the configuration and motion which it has at a given instant. 
To explain differences of function and development of a 
germ without assuming differences of structure is, there¬ 
fore, to admit that the properties of a germ are not those 
of a purely material system.” * (“ Encyclopedia Britannica, 
Vol. VIII., p. 42.) 

§ 34. Taking now, briefly, a retrospective view of our 
arguments thus far, we see: 

1. A power outside of nature giving rotation to the neb¬ 
ulous mass. 

2. A law of catastrophe throughout interrupting secular 
processes. 

3. The beginning of life on our globe to have been a ca¬ 
tastrophe, an interruption of ordinary natural process by 
a power from without—the scientists’ “force that maketh 
for righteousness.” 

4. That under the law of science, omne vivum ex vivo , and 
the axiom, nihil ex nihil , this force that makes for right¬ 
eousness must itself be living, and therefore a person, even 
the supreme first cause of all things. 

5. That life is not a function of structured matter, but 
is itself the builder of the structure, each kind of life bear¬ 
ing by heredity the type of its species, every organism be¬ 
ing an incarnation of a living entity. 

6. That the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution is demon¬ 
strated not to have been a fact by the irrefragable testimo¬ 
ny of the rocks. 

7. That therefore the introduction of new species, con- 
continously all along the ages, must have been, as to mere 

* There must, therefore, be in the germ something more than 
matter. 



68 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 


material nature, ab extra *—the work of the Supreme Will 
controlling , directing (most likely) natural causes and proc¬ 
esses. 

8. That the general progress was ever upward from the 
protozoan to man. 

* If science gives up the intermediate links between species, as it 
seems she will be compelled to do, and admits that new species sprung 
from pre-existing species, per saltum, then it would seem that science 
must also postulate a directive mind, guiding and controlling evolu¬ 
tion according to the counsel of his own will. 



CHAPTER V. 


§ 35. Law of Adaptation. Science deduces this law of 
complete adaptation to environment, for purposed mode of 
life in all organisms, by a 'priori reasoning, whatever be tak¬ 
en as the working force of development. On the Darwin¬ 
ian hypothesis of evolution it must result, as the progressive 
variations would only be permanent, so as to attain to specif¬ 
ic differentiation, when the individuals were adapted to their 
environment, and this is all the law means. We must ob¬ 
serve, however, that the adaptation might not he perfect, and 
yet the residuum of force be sufficient to secure a permanen¬ 
cy adequate to the result. But on the other hand, if each 
separate species was the product of the supervising, direct¬ 
ing influences of the Supreme Will, there would undoubt¬ 
edly be expected a more, indeed most, perfect adaptation of 
each species to its environment for purposed mode of life. 
Does science bear evidence of this perfect adaptation to en¬ 
vironment in all the multiplied thousands of organisms 
that exist upon our globe? We unhesitatingly assert that 
it does; that there is no single species of animals in which 
this perfect adaptation to environment is not found to exist. 
Adaptation to environment, and full equipment for purposed 
mode of life, is everywhere apparent. Science finds no ex¬ 
ception to the law. 

It was indeed at one time alleged that the sloth fur¬ 
nished the exception sought for, but a more perfect acquaint¬ 
ance with its habits destroyed the illusion. It was at length 
found to be as perfectly adapted to its mode of life as all 
the rest of the animal world. This adaptation is both mor¬ 
phological and physiological; morphological, as seen in the 


70 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

form of the bird fitted for swift motion through the air, and 
of the fish and cetacea for like movement through the wa¬ 
ter. Let the mathematician summon the resources of his 
highest analysis to determine the best forms for facile 
movement through the air and through water, and his re¬ 
sults will be found exactly illustrated in the form of the 
bird for the former and of the fish for the latter. 

§ 36. It has been alleged that deformities appear in nat¬ 
ure, especially among some fishes, and this is undoubtedly 
true if by deformity we understand departure from the 
common type of other races, the form of man being taken 
as the symbol of perfection. But this departure from the 
ordinary type tells us nothing as to adaptation; it may well 
consist with the most perfect adaptation to purposed mode of 
life. We quote from Bushnell (“Nature and the Supernat¬ 
ural,” p. 209): “ Regarding man as the highest form of or¬ 
ganization, having a head, neck, two hands, and two feet— 
the latter answered by the four legs of the beast, the two 
wings and two legs of the birds, and the four fins of the 
fishes—every creature will be most perfect in form when his 
parts are adjusted most nearly, according to the human 
analogy; and it is found that all the first fishes were act 
ually in this type of agreement. In the second formation 
the forward fins are found to have slid up (not seldom), and 
to have stuck themselves close upon the head, leaving no 
neck, much as if a man were to appear with his arms fast¬ 
ened to his head close behind his ears. In a later forma¬ 
tion both fins, representing hands and feet, have mounted 
to the same position; and as if this were uncomfortable, 
some races have dropped a pair altogether. Then next in 
the chalk formation, when the nearest vicinage to man is 
attained, appear the remarkable order that includes the 
plaice, the turbot, halibut, and flounder, the two latter of 
which are familiar in our American waters. They have 
the four fins stuck close upon the head; they are capsized, so 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 71 

as to swim on the flat side; the mouth is twisted, so as to ac¬ 
commodate their false position; the two sides of the jaw do 
not match, one being much larger, and having three or four 
times as many teeth as the other; the backbone is lateral, 
occupying one side of the body; one eye is fixed in the 
middle of the forehead, and the other, which is much small¬ 
er, is thrust out upon one of the side promontories of the 
face.” Now let it be noted that all this is entirely consist¬ 
ent with the most perfect adaptation to purposed mode of 
life, and that, indeed, this latter, the final , cause of these fishes 
absolutely necessitated the departure from the normal type; 
so that there is no monstrosity here . 

§ 37. This so-called malformation cannot be taken, as 
Bushnell seems to think, as the work of an evil demon, un¬ 
less it should appear that all these animals, from their pe¬ 
culiar form, were out of adjustment with their environ¬ 
ments and to the mode of life to which they are shut up, 
which is not true, since they, with all other animals, are so 
constituted, so adapted inwardly and outwardly to their en¬ 
vironment, as to find each its measure of happiness in pur¬ 
suit of its own proper course of life. 

This morphological adaptation might be illustrated indefi¬ 
nitely by reference to the different species of animals. We 
confine ourselves, however, to pointing it out in the numer¬ 
ous species of humming-birds, where in two respects it is 
markedly illustrated. Designed to feed on the nectar found 
in flowers, it was necessary that their bills should be so 
formed in shape and length that the individuals of each 
species could reach the bottom of the flower on which it 
was to feed; and again, that they should be able to remain 
in fixed position, poised in air while feeding, which is ac¬ 
complished by giving them a peculiar form of wing, a pow¬ 
er of immovable suspension that few birds possess, and 
none except where it is needed for their modes of life. 

§ 38. We proceed now to consider the matter in its phys- 


72 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

iological aspect, and here we find not only adaptation of out¬ 
ward form, but that this also involves a peculiar structure 
throughout the animals of each species—that is, that every 
animal has its internal structure throughout peculiar to its 
own species, and precisely adapted to its mode of life. 

Thus, the carnivora—beasts of prey—are all unguiculates, 
having five toes armed with claws, teeth for tearing flesh, 
and stomach and digestive apparatus for assimilating it; in¬ 
deed, every part of the structure is physiologically adapted 
to this mode of life. And the herbivora are unguiculates, 
having hoofs, teeth suited to mastication of vegetals, and 
stomach and digestive apparatus suited to the assimilation 
of vegetable substances. And so far-reaching is this law 
of adaptation in these and all other animals, that every part, 
even to the least—every bone, tendon, muscle, tissue—has its 
own structure peculiar to the type of its possessor. As 
Paul (1 Cor. xv. 39) affirmed more than eighteen centuries 
ago, “All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind 
of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, 
and another of birds;” so that one skilled in comparative 
anatomy is able to identify the type of the animals from 
any small part in his possession. In illustration of this, it 
is recorded that the scientist Owen received from Australia 
a small piece of bone, with a request that he would deter¬ 
mine to what animal it had belonged, and he decided that 
it had formed part of the skeleton of a gigantic bird, long 
extinct, and wrote to the party who had sent the specimen 
to him, asking that search be made for the entire skeleton. 
And it happened that the ship that bore his request passed 
in mid-ocean a ship from Australia bearing to him the en¬ 
tire skeleton of the bird, which had been found and for¬ 
warded to him. The skeleton was found to correspond 
precisely with the description previously given by him. In 
further illustration of this adaptation, we may add that ani¬ 
mals whose habitat is in subterranean waters, where no 


73 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

light penetrates, have no eyes, having no need of them, as 
witness the eyeless fish and craw-fish of the Mammoth Cave 
in Kentucky, and of subterranean waters generally. 

§ 39. Let it be further noted that this adaptation is so 
precise that there are throughout no deficiencies, no super¬ 
fluities of power or capacities. Each species is perfectly 
adapted to its environment, for its purposed mode of life, 
its place in nature; nothing wanting—no surplusages. In 
either case, unhappiness would be the result. If there 
w r ere deficiency in the powers or functional operations with¬ 
in to meet the environment for purposed adaptation to 
mode of life, this would result in a feeling of want, unrest, 
and consequent unhappiness. If, on the contrary, there 
were surplusage, redundancy of powers, with nothing in the 
environment to meet and satisfy such powers, there would 
equally result a feeling of want, unrest, and consequent 
unhappiness. 

Finally, on this point, we affirm unhesitatingly that nat¬ 
ure furnishes absolutely no exception to this law of perfect 
adaptation of every living thing to its environment and 
purposed mode of life—its destiny—and that this adapta¬ 
tion extends to the entire structure, internal and external, 
morphologically and physiologically, and challenge the 
production of a single exception to the law among the 
innumerable species of earth. 

§ 40. Having seen that the law of adaptation is univer¬ 
sal, we notice in the next place that this adaptation sim¬ 
ply consists in the perfect adjustment of powers, faculties, 
sensibilities, mental attributes, instincts (to be considered 
more fully presently), and functional work of the individ¬ 
ual structure, morphologically and physiologically, to the 
environment in such guise as to secure the happiness of 
each according to its measure. 

The organs of sense are, each and all, avenues of pleas¬ 
ure to the possessor. The proper food of each animal is 


74 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

pleasant to its taste and smell; the breathing is a pleasure; 
light is pleasant to the eye. The internal processes are so 
arranged that they are sources of pleasure, and we observe 
that this is the orderly working of nature in every part of 
the domain of animal life. 

On this point the author of the “Vestiges” says, page 
185: “ That enjoyment is the proper attendant of animal 
existence is pressed upon us by all that we see and all that 
we experience. Everywhere we perceive in the lower creat¬ 
ures, in their ordinary condition, symptoms of enjoyment. 
Their whole being is a system of needs, the supply of which 
is gratification, and of faculties, the exercise of which is 
pleasurable. When we consult our own sensations we find 
that, even in a sense of the healthy performance of all the 
functions of the animal economy, God has furnished us 
with an innocent and a very high enjoyment.” “ The mere 
quiet consciousness of a healthy play of the mental func¬ 
tions—a mind at ease with itself and all around it—is in 
like manner extremely agreeable.” 

Science must therefore conclude that the power that 
worked to this result must be taken to be benevolent, if 
it be made evident that this condition of things be not the 
result of the working of merely natural material forces—a 
conclusion clearly negatived, as we have seen by geological 
records. 

§ 41. How, then, have some scientists declared that if 
the process of evolution had ceased at, say the reptilian 
age, reason would have concluded it to be the work of 
an evil demon? Does an evil demon work for joy in its 
creations? No! Good does not proceed from evil; but 
evil, and evil only. God may overrule evil for good, and 
doubtless will. But that is quite another thing. If, as we 
have seen, the entirety of things as presented to us bears 
the impress of a benevolent, all-powerful, Supreme Will, 
then this impress must be seen on each and every part, if 


75 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

only we have eyes to see; so that, stop the development 
at whatever point you will, the portion already in exist¬ 
ence must hear the impress of the same benevolence. Only 
let it be observed, in that case, our reason might be at 
fault, and certainly would be, in determining the final 
cause of the unfinished, partial evolution. 

It is only when the whole plan is before us finished that 
we are able to judge of the wisdom evidenced in the ad¬ 
justment of the parts. The whole edifice must be com¬ 
pletely in view, from the foundation-stone to that which 
crowns the building, before the glory of the structure be¬ 
comes fully apparent. 

So, to the Christian philosopher, every part of creation’s 
plan, from the protozoan to man, bears evidence of the 
Creator’s goodness; and yet, the whole plan not being be¬ 
fore him, he must perforce await the final development in 
the further evolution (to be considered further on) before 
the full glory of the plan shall burst upon his enraptured 
vision. 

§ 42. But, it may be asked, what of death? Does death 
already and always in the world consist with the character of 
benevolence you assume to belong to this all-powerful Su¬ 
preme Will? Assume? There is no assumption about it. 
All nature tells of benevolence. But the answer is ready. 
Most assuredly it does. It seems to us axiomatic that that 
thing or event which makes for the greatest happiness of 
the entire world of living beings cannot be considered an 
evil. 

First, we observe that the relation between parent and 
offspring, with its wealth of love, the social relations be¬ 
tween individuals of the same species, so generally witnessed 
among animals of every grade, form no small part of the 
universal happiness blessing the animal world. 

Again, to our human reason, there appear possible but 
two plans on which the Creator could have provided for 


76 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

peopling the world: First, by creating by special fiat every 
individual of all the tribes of earth, and conferring upon 
all the gift of immortality; and, in that case, what a meager, 
tame, unsatisfactory world it would have been, bereft of the 
sweet joys that flow from the parental and family relations. 
And then again, what would result with a world of men 
(of women there would be none) immortal and in rebellion 
against God. And if men, as now constituted, with all the 
sweet restraining influences thrown around them by family 
and social relations, come to such a pitch of wickedness 
during their brief life, what would be the result in the case 
supposed? They would surely become devils incarnate, as 
indeed many seem to do as it is. 

The other mode, and the only other that we can conceive 
of, is that seen to exist—viz., the creation of each species by 
one or more pairs with the power of reproduction. But 
let us see what this involves. A little calculation proves 
that death is absolutely necessai-y to the system. Thus: 
Two sparrows, for example, nesting, produce two fledgelings 
the first year, the four produce eight the second year, and 
so on, doubling in number every year, and, there being no 
death, the number of sparrows at the end of any year would 
be represented by the sum of the series 2-f-2 2 -b2 3 -f 2 4 -f 

.2 n ; and what does this amount to? Why, simply to 

this: that at the end of a century, if we estimate each spar¬ 
row to have a volume of a cubic inch, the volume of sparrows 
would exceed that of this world many times over. Similar 
results will follow, whatever animal, however small, be tak¬ 
en as the basis of our calculation. 

Death, then, is, and always was, necessary to the present 
order of things. But it may be asked, What of violence? 
Why the beast of prey? Would not death by old age be a 
more merciful remedy? Surely not. Consider what this 
involves: the slow decay of powers, till, unable to procure 
food, the poor animal passes away by starvation. The pro- 



77 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

vision to maintain an equilibrium of population by animals 
of prey is certainly the most merciful. 

Dr. Livingston, the celebrated African explorer, relates 
that on one occasion when traveling in South Africa with 
a guard of natives he was seized by a lion, which shook him 
much as a terrier does a rat, and that he was so dazed by 
the shaking as to be utterly devoid of any sense of fear or 
pain. The remark is suggestive. It would seem that the 
instinct in the beast of prey to shake its victim was given 
for the very purpose of rendering the sacrifice of life as 
painless as possible; so that nature, or rather the God of 
nature, has made provision for the catastrophe of each life 
with the least pain to each victim. And as the preying 
animal derives food and pleasure with the greatest amount 
of happiness to the whole, therefore we cannot regard 
death as an evil. 

It may be objected that the life of the herbivorous animal 
must be one of constant terror from fear of beasts of prey. 
This cannot be true, as facts within the writer’s memory go 
to prove. Many years ago he had a tame deer — a pet about 
the house, at liberty to go and come when he pleased. Well, 
when Bobby was grown he would frequently go out and 
range the country until he got the hounds after him, when 
he would give them a chase of miles, until tired or pressed, 
when he would return to the house and take refuge in the 
kitchen. This happened so often that the writer became 
satisfied that Bobby enjoyed the chase. 


CHAPTER VI. 


§ 43. Law of Instinct. Having discussed thus at some 
length the law of adaptation, with its sequence, we proceed 
to consider another universal law of animate beings, inti¬ 
mately connected with that of adaptation, and essential to 
the working of that law—viz., the law of instinct: 

Instinct may be variously defined. Thus: That propen¬ 
sity or tendency in every animal to present the power of 
faculty within to that in the environment to which it is 
adapted or adjusted; and, further, the propensity to do that , 
whatever it may be, that is necessary to reproduction and 
the preservation of its offspring. Or, instinct is a blind, 
innate impulse, from a nervous organization and corre¬ 
sponding disposition, directing all the individuals of the 
same species to the same ends by the use of the same means. 
This law of instinct is so universal, so manifested in all an¬ 
imals, that it is difficult to choose from the great mass of 
facts appropriate illustrations. 

It must be observed as necessary to the very idea of in¬ 
stinct, and as an essential part of the law, that whatever it 
leads the animal to do, the environment contains a somewhat 
answering to, adjusted to— meeting the act to which the in¬ 
stinct leads. Thus, the new-born mammal immediately , instinct¬ 
ively seeks the teat; therefore, there must be in the environ¬ 
ment a teat answering to the instinct. The teat proves the 
instinct, and the instinct proves the teat as well. The op¬ 
erations of this law of instinct are seen everywhere, in all 
animals in thousands of different ways; in every animal 
seeking its appropriate food, as the mammal in sucking, the 
chicken in scratching, etc.; in the pairing of male and female 


Christianity in Accord with Science. 79 

of every species; in the care of parents for their offspring; 
in the nesting of birds and reptiles; in the provision made 
by insects for the preservation of offspring they are never 
to see; in the preparation of many insects for their meta¬ 
morphosis; and in the work of certain insects necessary to 
the propagation of certain plants, showing the correlation 
between the vegetable and the animal kingdom. 

We proceed to give a number of illustrations sufficient 
to make the subject clear to the reader and to establish the 
law. 

§ 44. 1. The migratory instinct exhibited in birds of pas¬ 
sage, which often traverse immense distances, by night as 
well as by day, over seas as well as over land, often many 
hundreds of miles. This fact seems to prove them to be 
possessed of a sense of direction utterly inconceivable by us, 
since of some species the young migrate by themselves, so 
that their pilotage cannot be ascribed to experience. Be¬ 
sides, when traversing seas there are no landmarks to serve 
as guides. 

2. The same sense of direction is possessed by many spe¬ 
cies of animals that are not migratory, enabling them to 
find their way to their accustomed haunts over greater or 
less distances, and always by a straight course, however de¬ 
vious may have been the course by which they were taken 
from home. Thus the evidence is unquestionable that this 
sense of direction is possessed by, at least, the bee, the hom- 
ing pigeon, dogs, cats, horses, sheep, and cattle. There 
seems to be no limit to the distance over which these ani¬ 
mals can find their way home. 

3. The Norwegian lemming is known to migrate period 
ically westwardly, with the result that enormous numbers 
of them perish in the ocean which they attempt to swim. 

4. Mr. Mivait relates of a certain wasp-like animal that 
stings spiders in a certain part of the cephalo-thorax re¬ 
gion, thus paralyzing without killing them, which it then 


80 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature, 

stores away with the larvae of the fly, to serve as food for 
them when they quit the egg. 

5. The female of the stag-beetle excavates for itself, as 
preparatory to passing into the chrysalis state, a hole exactly 
its own length, while the male larva fashions for itself a 
hole of double its own length, so as to provide room for the 
growth, during its unconscious condition, of horns equal to 
its own length. 

6. Birds build their nests preparatory to incubation before 
the eggs appear, and are possessed of the brooding instinct. 

7. The chick of the domestic fowl, scratching for food, 
even if hatched without the intervention of the hen, and 
when kept separate from all its species. 

8. In the moth and butterfly, depositing their eggs on 
the precise substance suited for the food, not of themselves, 
but of the caterpillar. 

9. In the dragon-fly, an inhabitant of the air, depositing 
her eggs in the water, alone adapted to her young. 

10. In the gad-fly depositing its eggs only on that part 
of the horse where they are more likely to be transferred 
to the horse’s stomach, where the bot alone finds its home. 

11. In the salmon and other fishes seeking the head¬ 
waters of streams to deposit their eggs. 

12. In the violet crab of Jamaica, which performs a long 
and fatiguing journey of months from her mountain re¬ 
treats to the sea, where she deposits her spawn in the open 
sea, and sets out on her return to the mountains. 

13. In the correlation between certain insects and certain 
flowers, which need their visits in order to fertilization. It 
is not necessary to particularize here. The fact is so well 
known, and so general, that illustrations are deemed un¬ 
necessary. 

§ 45. In fine, it is a fact that every species among the in¬ 
numerable hosts of animate nature has its own special in¬ 
stincts, working in its own adaptation of the internal pow- 


81 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

ers and faculties to its environment, the well-being of the 
individual and the permanence of the species. 

We pause to ask, Whence these instincts? Scientists are 
in the habit of referring them to heredity. This cannot ac¬ 
count for them, since their commencement could not be hered¬ 
itary. Again, to natural selection; but this postulates the 
truth of Darwin’s theory of evolution, which we have 
proved to be discredited by the records in the rocks. Be¬ 
sides, in most of the instances cited, neither of these hypoth¬ 
eses will account for the origin of the instinct. For in¬ 
stance, how came Mr. Mivait’s wasp (4), in the first place, to 
sting the spider in that particular point necessary to the de¬ 
sired result ? Was it accidental ? and repeated accidentally 
until it became a habit so as to be transmitted to its prog¬ 
eny? 

And what of the case of the stag-beetle (5), perhaps the 
most wonderful of all these wonders ? Is that also hered¬ 
ity? No; instinct is intelligent and wise, wondrously 
selecting means, and skillfully adjusting effort to ends. 
The intelligence does not reside in the animal; the wisdom 
does not belong to it. There must have been a Creator, 
who did both know and intend that his creatures should do 
just these things and nothing else. Instinct must be the 
intelligence of the Creator in the animal. The unreasoning, 
unintelligent animal works unerringly, because the inspira¬ 
tion of the All-wise makes it wise without reason and be¬ 
yond reason. 

Instinct, as a law of nature, is God’s way of working in 
the animal for its own good and his own glory—his way of 
working. 

Finally, we lay it down as a law of nature, universal and 
incontrovertible, that there is in every case a somewhat in 
the environment that answers , is adjusted to, the instinct. There 
is, there can be, absolutely no exception to the law, and this 
we lay down comprehensively as the law of instinct. 


82 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

It has been asserted that instinct always works for the 
good of the animal and the species, and that therefore it 
is the product of natural selection. To this the answer is 
ready, that assuredly instincts were generally given to the 
animal for its own good, or the good of the species, but not 
always; as witness the instance of the moth, whose instinct 
to seek the light leads to its destruction, certainly not for 
its own good, but for the good of others, as of the farmer 
who makes use of this instinct to prevent the utter ruin of 
his crops from the over-multiplication of its various tribes. 
And again, witness the case of the Norwegian lemming, 
where the migratory instinct leads to the destruction of the 
entire migrating host. 


CHAPTER VII. 

§ 46. Law of Continuity. We have seen how science 
arose from classification of phenomena, and how science 
developed—revealed—the great iaws of nature; that is, the 
orderly lines along which nature ever proceeds in all things, 
living and dead. 

Now, in contemplating these laws we find that there is, 
as there ought to be, a relation between them, since nature 
must ever work harmoniously; that they run, so to say, in 
parallel lines, and are correlated at every point. Hence we 
deduce a law of laws, which is called the law of continuity. 
Thus the law of gravitation, the law of catastrophe, the law 
of the luminiferous ether, the law of life,* the law of evo¬ 
lution, the law of conformity to type, the law of adaptation, 
the law of instinct, while distinct each from all the rest, 
are interworking and co-working in nature in perfect har¬ 
mony each with all, resulting in the grand harmony of the 
whole visible universe. 

It will therefore be seen that these several laws, indi¬ 
cating the lines along which all forces —resident in, or acting 
upon, nature —proceed, must have a real harmony among 
themselves; so that, reasoning upon what we observe to be 

* As we have seen, life cannot be accounted for from the working of 
the molecular and chemic forces in nature, and while an apparent 
break in the ordeily course of nature is not really a break at all, it 
is most assuredly an interjection into the established order of nature, 
by the Creator and Lord of nature , whose mil is nature’s law. Such 
interjections will be seen to have occurred all along the line of evo¬ 
lution, and hence to be no breach of the law of continuity. We 
remark that the fact of science being unable to account for the in¬ 
troduction of life proves it to be a stranger, and not within the pur¬ 
view of its system. 



84 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature , 

or to have been in nature, we shall never be put to con¬ 
fusion, but may confidently, from what has been , deduce 
what shall be in the endless future. 

This is the law of continuity. It is opposed to the fortu¬ 
itous, to mere chance; and if, as may very well happen, 
any thing out of the usual order of nature occurs, and we 
cannot account for it, we are absolutely certain that its un¬ 
accountability results simply from our ignorance, and that 
if we knew all the forces at work it would be seen to 
range itself at once under the reign of law—the law of 
continuity. 

§ 47. No exact definition of this law is to be found. 
One can get a clear idea of it only by illustration. “In 
point of fact, its sweep is so magnificent, it appeals so much 
more to the imagination than to reason, that men have pre¬ 
ferred to exhibit, rather than define it. Its true greatness 
consists in the final impression it leaves on the mind, with 
regard to the uniformity of nature, for it was reserved 
for the law of continuity to put the finishing touch to the 
harmony of the universe.” “One of the most striking gen¬ 
eralizations of recent science is that even laws have their 
law. Phenomena, first in the progress of knowledge, were 
grouped together, and shortly nature presented the specta¬ 
cle of a cosmos, the lines of beauty being the great natu¬ 
ral laws. So long, however, as these laws were merely 
great lines running through nature; so long as they re¬ 
mained isolated from one another, the system of nature 
was still incomplete. 

“ The principle which sought law among phenomena had 
to go further and seek law among the laws. Laws them¬ 
selves, accordingly, came to be treated as they treated phe¬ 
nomena, and found themselves finally grouped in a still 
narrower circle. That inmost circle is governed by one 
great law—the law of continuity. It is the law of laws.” 
(Drummond, pp. 37, 38.) 


85 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

As further illustration of this law, we remark that the 
spectroscope has proved that the same matter of which the 
earth is constituted exists also in the sun and all the fixed 
stars, thus extending the law of gravitation to the entire 
visible universe; which fact, indeed, might have been de¬ 
duced from the law of continuity. 

§ 48. This law assures us that whatever has occurred 
at any time, anywhere, in all the universe, that same thing 
will always occur under exactly the same circumstances . 

Continuity necessarily excludes any break whatever in 
the orderly procedure of nature, and if any such break or 
catastrophe seemingly occurs that cannot otherwise be ac¬ 
counted for, compels true science to admit the presence of 
a force ab extra, the visible universe, operating upon, and 
working with, natural forces. (See foot-note, page 83.) In 
such case, indeed, such force, whatever it may be, must be 
included in nature, and thus compels us to extend the sig¬ 
nification of the term to include all that is, visible and in¬ 
visible—all worlds, with all that is in them, God, angels, 
potentates, powers, dominions—in which case nature, in its 
limited signification, dwindles to a mere fractional part of 
all that is. 

§ 49. Thus the creation of the matter of the solar system 
(which, as we have seen in Section 9, occurred in time), the 
rotation given the nebulous mass, the introduction of life 
upon the earth, the introduction of new species, the old 
having perished, etc., were not infractions of the law of 
continuity, the very same things having occurred in all 
worlds from the beginning, when in the creation of mate¬ 
rial or immaterial substances, dead or living, the laws of 
their being sprung from the nature impressed upon them, 
and that nature from the nature of the Creator himself. 
He is one, hence there must be an identity of law in all 
his works. 

§ 50. It may be objected that the laws of one kingdom 


86 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

cannot be identical with those of another, and hence there 
is a break in continuity; that the laws of the mineral king¬ 
dom are different from those of the vegetal, and these from 
the laws of the animal kingdom. 

The difficulty is only apparent. It must be remembered 
that law says nothing of cause or force; is simply an ex¬ 
pression of mode or manner of being, and hence arises 
from properties or characteristics of things—in fact, the 
laws of the inorganic kingdom do pervade and make 
themselves felt in the higher kingdoms, and wherever else 
there is matter. The laws of the vegetal life do not de¬ 
scend to the lower kingdoms, simply because there is no 
life there, and so no modes of life; and so of the higher an¬ 
imal kingdom. Wherever there is life the laws of life 
control, varying only with the nature of the life and always 
observing and securing the integrity of continuity. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


§ 51. Classification. We proceed now to notice briefly 
the classification science has made of things visible—the 
multitudinous objects of sense that surround us on every 
hand. 

The general classification may be briefly stated as fol¬ 
lows: (1) The mineral kingdom; (2) the vegetal king¬ 
dom; (3) the animal kingdom. In one or the other of 
these kingdoms all things in the visible universe will be 
found to take their place. Although there may be a bor¬ 
der-land between the vegetal and the animal kingdoms, in 
which organisms are found which the scientist finds it diffi¬ 
cult to place, the difficulty will be found to arise solely from 
his ignorance of the real nature of these organisms. Were 
this fully known they would at once take their place in 
their appropriate kingdoms. 

So, also, it may be well in this connection to remark that 
there will be found in the progress of our discussion at the 
summit of the animal kingdom a border-land, imperatively 
demanding, as supplementary to the scientific classification 
the assignment by science of a fourth kingdom—viz., the 
spiritual kingdom—since we shall surely find in man fac¬ 
ulties, powers, capacities, adaptations, instincts that defi¬ 
nitely separate him from the mere animal, and compel his 
assignment to a higher kingdom. 

§ 52. The Mineral Kingdom. To the mineral kingdom 
science assigns all objects of sense that do not manifest the 
phenomena of life—mere dead matter—the elements, simple 
or combined, subject to the laws of gravitation and of 
forces—molecular and chemic alone—by the operation of 


88 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature , 

which forces, aided by the forces which are considered as 
the product of vibrations of luminiferous ether, under the 
directive power of the Supreme Creator, all the beautiful 
order of the finished earth is to be ascribed. 

Having considered, under the head of gravitation (Sec¬ 
tion 8), the scientific view of the formation of theseveral plan¬ 
ets which belong to the solar system, we now proceed to 
consider briefly the process of the earth’s completion as a 
fit residence for him who was to subdue and rule her. 

As seen under the paragraph on gravitation (Section 8), 
when the earth had so far cooled as to permit it, the watery 
vapor surrounding her as a dense atmosphere impenetrable 
by solar rays was precipitated, covering the entire spheroid 
with an ocean. Then portions of the cooling crust sunk, 
while other portions were raised above the water’s surface. 
Then began the wearing down of the emerged portions and 
the deposition of sedimentary strata that has continued ever 
since. There were repeated subsidences and elevations of 
land and of sea-bottom, both secular and catastrophic—sec¬ 
ular during the deposition of conformable beds, catastrophic 
in the change from conformability to unconformability of 
strata. 

These changes occurred repeatedly, as witnessed by the 
strata wherever they are accessible to observation. The 
grand residuum of movement in the continental masses be¬ 
ing upward, and of the ocean’s bed downward, and while, 
as above stated, there was always a catastrophic movement 
in passing from conformable to other beds lying upon them 
unconformably, the grander catastrophes are seen to have 
occurred in those vast disturbances accompanying mountain¬ 
making; so that the strata bear evidence everywhere of 
ever-varying elevation, depression, overturning, contortion, 
and denudation, until the earth attained her present face. 

§ 53. Now t we call attention to a very suggestive fact— 
that the elementary substances were originally so adjusted 


89 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

relatively in quantity as to leave an atmosphere of mixed 
Oxygen and Nitrogen, exactly adjusted to animal life, 
and that the quantity of C0 2 was such as to leave 
exactly enough in our atmosphere for plant sustenance, after 
the vast, incalculable quantity of carbon had been taken 
from the air and stored up in the coal-beds and otherwise. 
Were carbonic acid gas (C0 2 ) in greater proportion it 
would be deleterious to animal life, especially of the higher 
animals, and if in less it would not suffice for vegetal 
life. Was all this fortuitous? That seems to us incredible. 

And again, in the same line of thought we point out the 
fact that it is a law of nature that heat expands all sub¬ 
stances, and that the withdrawal of heat is followed univer¬ 
sally by condensation, and consequent contraction of vol¬ 
ume, with increase of specific gravity. Now, there is one , 
and, so far as we know, only one exception to this law, and 
this one exception is absolutely necessary to the habitability 
of the earth. We allude to the case of water, which, grow¬ 
ing colder, contracts in volume down to about 40° Fahren¬ 
heit, and then expands, as it grows colder, until at 32° 
Fahrenheit it becomes solid (ice). 

If this exception to the general law were not made ice 
would sink , and, being covered by depths of water, the sum¬ 
mer heat could not melt it, water being a very poor con¬ 
ductor of heat, and thus all deep waters would become 
solid ice, the ocean itself becoming a solid bed of ice and the 
earth a frozen world and unadapted to animal or vegetal life. 

To this reasoning it may be objected that some metals 
exhibit the same departure from the general law; but the 
? case is different, for these metals only expand in the act of 
crystallization, from (as is supposed) the re-arrangement of 
molecular position, while water begins to expand long be¬ 
fore this re-arrangement begins. Here then we have an ex¬ 
ception to a general law, and this exception absolutely nec¬ 
essary to the habitability of the world. 


90 


Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

Is not this one universally known fact demonstrative evi¬ 
dence of intelligent purpose in the ordination of things? Does 
it not demand imperatively the postulation of an infinite 
Creator in directing and controlling the forces of nature? 

§ 54. It may be further observed that without those re¬ 
peated dislocations and upheavals of strata into mountain- 
chains the flat and even-surfaced earth would have had no 
springs, and the greater part of it would have been unin¬ 
habitable. And again, but for the vast denudation that 
has taken place- everywhere, and especially in the glacial 
epoch, the tiller’s toil could not have met such abundant 
reward. 

And still further, the location of the highest mountain- 
chains, facing the broadest oceans, seems to have been ad¬ 
justed in the interest of Christianity and high civilization. 
Had the Rocky Mountains replaced the Appalachian chain 
North America, in great part, would have been desert; and 
had a lofty chain of mountains like the Andes occupied the 
western border of Europe, we can hardly estimate the loss 
to humanity that would have resulted. Behold the actual 
result of the arrangement of the continental masses—the 
highly civilized populations of Europe and America facing 
each other, with only the Atlantic ferriage between, facili¬ 
tating their intercourse, promoting their commercial in¬ 
terests, and enabling these Christianized peoples to extend 
the influence of their high progress in the arts and sciences 
and Christian influences among all the populations of earth. 

Was there no design in all this? Can it be believed that 
the arrangement was merely fortuitous? 

§ 55. The Vegetal and Animal Kingdoms. We come * 
now to consider the progress of life upon the earth, and re¬ 
mark that it will appear that besides being a development, 
it was most probably an evolution . 

Life beginning in the low r est class of plants, the fucoi or 
sea-weeds, passed into the animal in the protozoan, then was 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 91 

manifested in the mollusk, the radiate, and the marine ar¬ 
ticulate—being chiefly marine, because the land was not 
yet fitted for occupancy by living beings. During that 
early period of the earth’s history both atmosphere and 
ocean were unfitted for the higher order of living beings. 
They could neither exist on land nor in ocean. The at¬ 
mosphere was loaded with carbonic acid gas (C0 2 ), and 
the oceanic waters were heavy with salts of calcium; since 
all the carbon now stored up in coal-beds and elsewhere 
formed part of the atmosphere in the form of C0 2 , and all 
the lime found in the immense beds of limestone was then 
dissolved in ocean’s waters, either as carbonate or phos¬ 
phate. These calcium salts must be eliminated from the 
waters ere any but the very lowest grade of animals could 
exist therein. This was accomplished by the mollusks, ra¬ 
diates, and marine articulates —the trilobites, crinoids, 
corals, and mollusks, the greatest part of whose weight was' 
calcareous—with which the ocean swarmed in that early pe¬ 
riod. When these workers had segregated from the ocean’s 
waters the excess of calcium salts, and deposited them in 
sedimentary deposits, which constitute the limestone beds 
of to-day, then, and not till then, could the true fish appear. 

This happened in the latter part of the silurian age, when 
the ganoids (the first fishes) appeared abruptly, without 
precursors; with eyes—not rudimentary, as would be ex¬ 
pected on the Darwinian hypothesis, but as perfect as the 
eye of the fish of the present time. And, indeed, we may 
here remark that long anterior to this, in the early history 
of life, the tribolite possessed the perfect eye. 

Again, it may be observed of the ganoids, which so reck¬ 
lessly break through Mr. Darwin’s theory of evolution, that 
they were fishes, not only of the higher order, but were of 
the comprehensive type, foreshadowing the reptiles that 
were destined to appear only after the lapse of ages. 

§ 56. It may be further remarked that in the progress of 


92 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

climate and of condition of atmosphere and oceanic waters 
the tribes of animals were localized in time, just as they are 
now localized by the diverse climates of different regions; 
and that as the climate and other conditions changed, ex¬ 
isting species and tribes disappeared, and were replaced by 
others adjusted to the new conditions. The culmination of 
reptiles and mollusks in the reptilian age are examples of 
this localization in time, just as there are different tribes of 
animals and plants in the different zones of climate in pass¬ 
ing from the tropics to the poles. So, from the silurian, 
the age of a universal temperate climate, the fauna and 
flora changed as the climate grew colder. 

We further remark that the progress was ever accordant 
to system. For example, before the silurian age closed the 
fundamental type of the vertebrates was exhibited on a 
general plan that has been followed in its main features ever 
since, and progress was exhibited in the complete develop¬ 
ment of the fundamental idea. Thus the two pairs of fins 
in the fish are represented by the four limbs of the higher 
vertebrates, the air-bladder of the fish by the lungs, etc., 
and so throughout the structure. 

Further, it was a system of progressive specialization; for 
while in the earlier animal all the functions were performed 
by one protoplasmic mass, in the development these func¬ 
tions were assigned successively to special organs. It was a 
system of progressive cephalization; in fact, all progress be¬ 
ing necessarily shown in increased cephalization, since it is 
only through the nervous system that animals are brought 
into correspondence with external nature. 

This increase in brain mass finds its limit in man, and no 
further progress in this direction seems possible. 

This adherence to system in progressive development does 
not negative the Divine Existence in, and supervision of, nat¬ 
ure, but rather confirms and exhibits his presence, it being 
the only view of the progress of life that is consistent with 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 93 

the theory of its divine origin; for were there not such ad¬ 
herence to system and to regular order in development, con¬ 
stituting a fixed law of evolution, this would be complete 
demonstration that the progress was not ordered and con¬ 
trolled by a Being of infinite wisdom. And again, if the 
progress be divinely ordered it must exhibit not only sys¬ 
tem but adjustment as well to the changing environments 
of the successive species, as is found to be the fact. 

§ 57. Again, we observe that the earliest species of a 
tribe were not necessarily the lowest, as has been seen in the 
case of the ganoids, and that there are many examples of 
the same fact. 

Again, the transitions between species, genera, and tribes 
were generally abrupt —not gradual, as required by Mr. 
Darwin’s theory of evolution. The survey of the earth’s 
history discovers, as all geologists admit, almost no in¬ 
stances of gradual transition from species to species—not 
nearly as many or as close as is observed in the present 
fauna and flora. 

Mr. Dana says: “ In the early tertiary age the world, as 
the fossils show, was full of true mammals, related to the 
tapirs and other kinds, many of great size, while no such 
mammal has yet been detected in any earlier beds. It is 
undoubtedly true that the break in the records with regard 
to the era preceding the tertiary is great; but this fact does 
not supply all that science needs for a perfectly confident 
explanation of the break in mammalian life. In the coal¬ 
bearing formation overlying the cretaceous, in the Rocky 
Mountain region, there are the bones of dinosaurs; while in 
the eocene, resting on these, there are remains of a wonder¬ 
ful variety of mammals, some of elephantine size. Proba¬ 
bly a long time intervened between the eras of the coal¬ 
beds and the tertiary bone-beds; but however long the 
time that may be claimed, the abruptness of the transition 
is astounding, and needs facts for its full elucidation.” 


94 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

§. 58. The appearance of man without precursors is an¬ 
other example of this abruptness of transition. There is a 
very wide gap between the lowest of the human species and 
the highest man-ape, the volume of man’s brain being fully 
double that of the highest ape; and the structure of the 
ape throughout requires quadrupedal locomotion, while that 
of man necessitates erect locomotion. But it is useless to 
pursue this subject further. The entire history of develop¬ 
ment abundantly justifies the author’s conclusions as to the 
evolution of life on the earth. 

§ 59. Conclusions. Ill considering the progress of the 
development of life, we observe: 

1. That, as shown by the fossils in the rocks, specific lines 
were definitely drawn, even more so than among existing 
species. 

2. That in the progress, at every step species were disap¬ 
pearing, and new species being introduced. 

3. That at every change in the beds of strata there was 
more or less of this extermination of existing species and 
introduction of new ones. 

4. That at the end of each epoch the extermination was 
more general, and at the end of each period*almost always 
complete. 

5. That, while the development was generally upward, it 
was not so always, the lower species of a tribe not always 
appearing first. It often happened, indeed, that, in the in¬ 
troduction of a new tribe, “ magnates ivalked first ” (Hugh 
Miller.) 

6. That often special forms arose without precursors, as 
fish in the later silurian. 

7. That organs of sense, as the eye, appear to have been 
perfect when first found in the organism. As of the trilo- 
bitein the primordial, and of the ganoid in the upper silurian. 

8. The existence of comprehensive types; a prophecy of 
species to appear in the distant future. 


95 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

9. That the facts observed prove beyond reasonable doubt 
that science cannot deduce the phenomena of nature solely 
from forces resident in matter, and is compelled to recog¬ 
nize the presence of a force from the unseen universe im¬ 
manent in all things, directing, controlling, evolving all 
things in regular systematic order—a force as unvarying 
as those of matter itself, but unlike these, having intelligence, 
benevolence manifested in the unspeakable beauty of a 
glorious cosmos; tilling all space with joyous life, with 
whom matter is nothing, except as the basis of such life. 
Nor is this view at all derogatory, as some suppose, to the 
idea of an infinite God , since being infinite there can be no 
little , no great in finite things. A sparrow, to the infinite 
One, must be of more value than a world of dead matter. 
“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them 
shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” Nor is 
this in any wise a break in the law of continuity, since the 
very laws of thought not only allow T the hypothesis, but im¬ 
peratively demand it, as the recognition of this force in 
one case compels it, by the law of continuity, in all. 

10. That dead matter cannot of itself attain to life. It 
must forever remain in the inorganic kingdom until the 
living organism, reaching down out of its own kingdom, 
takes hold of the dead matter and lifts it into its own king¬ 
dom. Plants use inorganic matter for assimilation. In like 
manner a vegetable organism cannot attain to animal life; 
cannot by any inherent force lift itself into the kingdom 
above it. The animal assimilates only organic stuff, the 
product of animal or vegetable life, and fixes it in its own 
organism as part thereof, 


CHAPTER IX. 


§ 60. Recurring to the law of adaptation, considered in 
Chapter V., Section 33, we proceed further to remark on this 
subject that the development of life proceeded pari passu 
with the environment, thus: The primeval waters were sur¬ 
charged with calcareous matter in the form of carbonate 
and phosphate, and were unfitted for the higher forms of 
life, until animals that utilized these substances had caused 
their deposition in the sedimentary limestone strata, thus 
preparing the oceanic waters for occupancy by higher forms 
of life. The atmosphere was also heavily charged with 
C0 2 (carbon dioxide), and thus was not adapted to the ex¬ 
istence of the higher forms of terrestrial life, until the 
abounding forests of the carboniferous era had eliminated 
the carbon from the atmosphere and deposited it in the 
abundant coal-beds, when higher forms of animal life could 
thrive in the purified air. Since that time there has been 
an equilibrium maintained by the operation of vegetable 
and animal life, the latter absorbing the Oxygen and emit¬ 
ting C0 2 , while the former absorbed C0 2 , and emitted Oxy¬ 
gen, thus maintaining the equilibrium. We observe also, as 
partly accounting for the uniform warm temperature of the 
earth in all latitudes in those earlier eras, that the atmos¬ 
phere acts as a blanket, absorbing and retaining the heat 
from the sun, and also preventing the rapid radiation of that 
from the earth’s interior heat. In those earlier eras the 
blanket was thicker, so that the remains of animals of types 
now existing only in temperate or tropical or sub-tropical 
regions are found in the higher, even the arctic latitudes. 

Thus it is seen that the law of adaptation has always and 


Christianity in Accord with Science. 97 

everywhere controlled, both in the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms. 

Anterior to the carboniferous era, as said before, the at¬ 
mosphere must have been so surcharged with carbon diox¬ 
ide, and so deficient in Oxygen, as to be utterly unfit for 
animal life of the higher grade. A little consideration will 
be sufficient to prove this. Thus: For every pound of Car¬ 
bon taken from the atmosphere by plants for subsequent 
storing up in coal-beds there must have been taken from 
the C0 2 and set free in the atmosphere 21 pounds of Oxygen, 
or nearly 900 quarts, so that, while this era stored up such 
abundant fuel for civilized man’s future use, it also fitted 
the atmosphere for the higher forms of animal life. It may 
in like manner be seen that the waters of the ocean were unfit 
for the higher forms of life until toward the close of the up¬ 
per silurian era, when the abundant oceanic life of preceding 
ages had eliminated the excess of calcium carbonate and de¬ 
posited it in the limestone strata. It would hence appear 
that the author of the “ Vestiges of Creation ” erred when he 
says (p. 278): “The groves which formed the coal-beds 
might have been a fitting habitation for reptiles, birds, and 
mammals, as such groves are at the present day; yet we 
see none of the last of these classes, and hardly any trace of 
any of the first two in that period of the earth. Where 
Iguanodon lived the elephant might have lived, but there 
was no elephant at that time. 

“ The sea of the lower silurian was capable of supporting 
fish, but no fish existed. It hence forcibly appears that 
theaters of life must have lain unserviceable , or in posses¬ 
sion of a tenantry inferior to what might have enjoyed them 
for many ages. There certainly would have been no such 
waste allowed where Omnipotence was working on the 
plan of minute attention to specialties. The fact seems to 
denote that the actual procedure of peopling the earth was 
one of a natural kind, requiring a long space of time for its 
7 


98 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

evolution.” It would seem that a little consideration would 
have shown the writer that the same objection applies to 
his own hypothesis of Omnipotence working by law , since 
he could, so far as we can see, as well have so adjusted law 
that regions would be peopled as fast as conditions allowed , 
and it appears to us that this is precisely what the Infinite 
One has done, only the law being his own unchanging 
will. 

§ 61. Comprehensive View. Taking now a comprehen¬ 
sive view of this grand system of life from the algae and 
protozoan to the angiosperm and man, the question arises, 
“ What view must science take of the causes in operation? ” 
Can the development be accounted for by the operation of 
the natural properties of matter, dead and living? If so, 
science, according to her principles, must adopt the hy¬ 
pothesis of what is known as evolution. If it be affirmed 
that these natural (under the lower sense of the term) forces 
are sufficient to account for the entire system, an appeal 
must be made to the records in the bound volume of geology 
for a true history of the developments, and, as we have 
already seen (Sections 27, 28), these records bear unequivocal 
testimony adverse to the hypothesis. After all that may 
be said of the incompleteness of our examination of the 
records, the fact remains that the testimony of geology, so 
far as it goes, is manifestly adverse to the hypothesis. 
Whatever other evidence the fossils in the strata may give, 
they do manifestly declare that the progress from species to 
species was per saltum. And, if this be admitted, it appears 
to us that science must also take cognizance of a supreme 
guiding Will , ever present, and manifesting itself at every 
step, in all times. And why not? If science is compelled 
to admit the presence of this Supreme Will as a working 
force in any one case, then the law of continuity compels 
the admission of the same force throughout. Now, science 
renders unavoidable the conclusion that the entire visible 


99 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

universe began in time , and, if so, we must cognize a Creator 
of matter. “Nihil ex nihil ” Again, it has been seen that 
the action of a force, ab extra , is necessarily cognized in the 
rotation of the nebulous matter of our system—and, indeed, 
of all systems—as also in the introduction of life on our 
globe. Hence the law of continuity requires the cognition 
of that force throughout. 

§62. Recapitulation. Ill considering the progress of our 
argument thus far, we see that the evolution was both sec¬ 
ular and catastrophic. 

1. In the inorganic kingdom ever toward a perfected, com¬ 
plete world, at every step utilized by living beings, adapted 
to the condition of an advancing world, and every stage 
(in comprehensive type) a prophecy of what was yet to be, 
until the whole system was completed in the appearance of 
man, its coming lord. 

2. General progress in the vegetal kingdom from the 
algae (sea-weeds) through mosses, ferns, cryptogams to phe- 
nogams (gymnosperms, angiosperms). 

3. In the animal kingdom from protozoans, amaeba, 
radiate, mollusk, articulate, vertebrate, comprehensive types 
ever-expectant, fishes, reptiles, birds, marsupials, true mam¬ 
mals—man. 

4. That this progress was ever marked by increasing 
cephalization, until it was complete in man , and no further 
evolution on this line seems possible. What now? Must 
the evolution stop here? The law of continuity will not 
admit this conclusion. 

Observe that as evolution in the inorganic proceeded, a 
beginning was made on a new line, the vegetal , complete in 
the angiosperm; and that, as this was proceeding, a 
start was made on still another new line, the animal , com¬ 
plete in man. What now does the law of continuity de¬ 
mand but an evolution on still another line? The question 
now recurs: Have we any evidence in nature going to point 


100 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

out such an evolution? We must look for it in man, if any¬ 
where, and, if successful, should find him possessed of the 
characteristics of the comprehensive type. 

§ 63. And in studying man, we are at once struck with 
a certain duality of nature. On the one side he is intensely 
animal, filling completely our every conception of an ani¬ 
mal—eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, busy with the 
things seen, coming into the world, assimilating food, grow¬ 
ing up to maturity, becoming old, dying, like all other ani¬ 
mals; but these, all of them, seem to rest, find happiness, in 
the satisfaction of mere animal wants. Not so with man. 
In him alone we find a certain restlessness—a want of some¬ 
thing, he knows not what—a struggling onward after rest, 
contentment, and never finding it in the most abundant 
fullness of satisfied animal wants. 

We find in him, in nature, a somewhat above nature. 
The process of evolution has reached a point in cephalization 
where mind appears in magnitude and grandeur, reaching 
entirely beyond the mere intellectual; a mind of a nature, 
and having faculties impelling a certain groping in the 
darkness of the unseen, eagerly searching for he knows not 
what. Here is manifestly a comprehensive type, a prophecy 
of something yet to come, the beginning of an evolution on 
an entirely new line. Let us now proceed to examine 
whither this evolution, under the law of continuity, will 
lead us. 

§ 64. Intellect. In the first place, we find a reach, a 
strength, vigor, grandeur of intellect far beyond any want 
or need of the mere animal. Restlessly inquiring into nat¬ 
ure’s laws, he has indeed, as commanded, at length ruled, 
subdued the world, animate and inanimate; has brought all 
things in subjection under himself. He has harnessed the 
steam and the lightning, and made them obedient to his be¬ 
hests. His steam-ships plowing every sea; his heavily laden 
trains—with the speed of the wind, crossing plain and valley, 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 101 

plunging through the mountain-chains, disdaining the labor 
of surmounting their dizzy heights — connect ocean with 
ocean. By telephone and telegraph he anticipates the flight 
of time itself. The merchant in New York, at his early morn¬ 
ing meal, reads a dispatch from his correspondent in Lon¬ 
don, sent the afternoon of the same day. Having canvassed 
the visible things of the natural world about him, which 
have, in magnitude, relations to himself, he invents the 
microscope, and lo! a world of things invisible to the 
natural eye stand open to his gaze; and thus he explores 
the habits, the laws of life, the nature of living beings so 
minute that forty thousand million of them w T ould find 
ample room in his wine-glass. And having thus conquered 
to science the w T orld in which he resides, he makes for him¬ 
self the telescope, and explores the depths of the lunar vol¬ 
canoes, the continents, isles, and seas of our next door neigh¬ 
bor, Mars. He sees an apple fall in his garden, and 
straightway the laws of planetary and cometary motion 
stand revealed. All worlds and all systems of worlds are, 
to him, brought under law. His spectroscope tells him 
that all the worlds are made of the same materials as his 
own farm and garden. He finds that this earth, for a 
little while his abiding-place, that erst seemed so large, is 
but a very small member of a vast multitude of worlds that 
no man can number, no mind of man conceive, to all of 
which the very same laws that govern earthly things ex¬ 
tend. Now he finds himself a mere infant in the great 
family of his Father, with elder brothers innumerable, 
angels, cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, powers, 
joying all in his Father’s love. Thus disdaining the narrow 
bounds of his earthly home, we see him claiming citizenship 
in all the universe of God. 

And now we pause to ask: “ Is this the adaptation we 
have seen in all living things?” In all others we have 
found adaptation so complete, as to leave no place, either 


102 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

for want or surplusage. What vast surplusage do we not 
find here, if man be only an animal? In that case, the very 
ox that draws his wain is happier than he—yea, and far 
better off. In view of all this we ask: “Is this the work 
of nature, or of the God of nature? Have such stu¬ 
pendous powers been vested in a mere animal?” It verily 
seems like building a man-of-war for navigation of a mill¬ 
pond. 

§ 65. What is the verdict of science in this aspect of the 
case? In all other living beings the law of perfect adapta¬ 
tion holds. Science, under the law of continuity, affirms— 
cannot but affirm—that the law of adaptation holds here 
also, and if so the conclusion seems inevitable that man is 
not a mere animal, there must be in him something much 
beyond, above the animal; we must expect to find in him 
a comprehensive type, a prophecy of something grand and 
glorious yet to come, commensurate with his powers and 
yearnings, the beginning of an evolution on a new line. 

Will nature tell us nothing of the nature and the whith¬ 
er of this new line of evolution? Let us see. 

In passing from the consideration of man as an animal 
we have noticed the massiveness, the grandeur of his intel¬ 
lectual stature, unmistakably separating him from all other 
animals. Let us now proceed to examine the natural feat¬ 
ures of this wonderful being under another aspect. 

§ 66. Man’s Moral Nature. We have said he has a dual 
nature; he has other features beside his vast intellectual 
capacity clearly indicating this duality—that is, a moral nat¬ 
ure, definitely distinguishing him from all other animals, 
and entitling, compelling science (as we shall see further on) 
to classify him in this regard, not in a subdivision of the 
animal kingdom higher than mammals, but in a separate 
kingdom—the spiritual kingdom. The moral nature in 
man is a faculty, if it may be so called, that discerns be¬ 
tween right and wrong, the just and the unjust, the mor- 


103 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

ally beautiful and the morally ugly; it cognizes, in a sense 
different from what can be affirmed of any animal, the 
scope of the ought or the ought not. 

This moral faculty evidently and widely distinguishes 
man from all animals, and necessitates for him a distinct 
classification. It has manifested itself in all ages, every¬ 
where and under all conditions of the race; no sane man 
has ever been found without it in greater or less degree. 

While all animals are impelled by instincts to the course 
of life to which they have been adapted, and necessarily 
obey these instincts, we never predicate guilt or sin of them. 
But of man this cannot be said—the case is different; for 
while he undeniably has instincts that ever impel him in 
certain directions, he is not of necessity obedient to them, 
there being in his nature a somewhat higher and stronger 
than instinct, a reasoning faculty, and a moral nature that 
often overrides the instinct, and strives to make its voice 
heard in his wildest and most erratic excesses. Man, in all 
ages, and among all nations and tribes throughout the 
world, has, it may be well affirmed, generally given loose 
rein to his lusts, passions, appetites, until by heredity and 
by habit he has fallen into an appalling state of unnature. 
In rebellion against the monitions of his better nature, the 
laws of society, the government under which he lives, the 
God who created him, he has too often become a very wild 
beast, spreading desolation and ruin around him. And 
here be it noted that no other animal can fall below , as it 
cannot rise above , the plane of its nature; but with man it 
is otherwise, as he can, and often does, fall far, very far, below 
the plane of humanity, even to the level of the brutes, 
which in his insane fury he wantonly maltreats and 
slays. 

Is not this a suggestive fact? An ebb always in nature 
indicates and, indeed, necessitates a flood tide. As far as 
the waves of the sea fall below the mean, so far must their 


i 04 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

crests tower above that mean. So if man may, and often 
does , fall so far below the mean of his nature, we should in¬ 
fer that he also may rise as far above that mean. 

§ 67. The Will. It may be asked, Whence this terrible 
fact? this degradation, collapse, and deplorable state of un¬ 
nature into which man has fallen ? It is because he is not 
a mere animal, but is much more than an animal; he is a 
power, the lord of nature, able to subdue it and bring it un¬ 
der his control; has a will —free, untrammeled, royal, able 
to determine for himself (in despite of instinct, of passion, 
appetite, lust) his own destiny. After all that has been 
written upon the subject of the freedom of the will, we re¬ 
turn to, and insist upon, the simple fact that every one is 
conscious of its freedom; he knows that he can will or nil in 
any given case, and since to consciousness lies the ultimate 
appeal, its verdict must be received as final. 


CHAPTER X. 

§ 68. Appeal to the Law of Instinct. We have seen 
that the law of instinct is universal in all animal nature; 
that there is no animal without its instincts, and that 
every instinct is adjusted to somewhat in the animal’s en¬ 
vironment answering thereto, without which the instinct 
could have no existence. 

We proceed now to inquire, Are there any elements in 
human nature so universal, so persistent as to compel 
science to regard them as instincts f 

We unhesitatingly affirm that there are such elements, 
and we instance as evidence the instinct of prayer, affirm¬ 
ing that man is naturally a praying animal — that this in¬ 
stinct has always and everywhere been an element of man’s 
nature. No race, no tribe of men has ever been found with¬ 
out it. All men—enlightened, civilized, savage—have been 
addicted to seek aid, to ask help from some real or imagined 
superior being or beings in the time of need or of danger. 
No face has sunk so low, no race has risen so high as to be 
bereft of this instinct. We affirm without hesitation that 
even individuals of enlightened races, who have intellectu¬ 
ally persuaded themselves that there is no God, nothing 
higher or beyond the visible universe, in the hour of ex¬ 
treme peril are led instinctively to pray. Who has not 
heard of the infidel’s prayer, “O God (if there be a God), 
have mercy on my soul (if I have a soul)?” 

But the objector will say: “This is mere heredity, and 
therefore proves nothing.” Indeed! does it not? If it be 
universal, and still from heredity, it proves beyond doubt 
that the progenitors of all races were praying animals. 
But it matters not whence the instinct; all instincts of all 


106 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature, 

animals are hereditary, and still the law of instinct holds in 
all and everywhere. By the authority of what rule of rea¬ 
son, we ask, can this single instinct be considered an excep¬ 
tion to an otherwise universal law? 

Referring to Mr. Spencer’s definition of life (Section 22), 
we remark that if any correspondence fail, then in that respect 
the animal is dead. Thus an animal having no eyes is dead 
to light; but under the law of heredity it would happen, 
if its ancestors had eyes, that an instinct of the lost power 
would remain, and consequently a certain unrest, from a 
failure in the correspondence natural to the animal in that 
particular respect, would result. Just this, we take it, is 
the case with man; his instincts of prayer, worship, and ac¬ 
countability (to be considered presently) are what remains 
of a faculty belonging to the progenitors of the race, where¬ 
by they had a consciousness of the divine presence—com¬ 
munion with God—which constituted their spiritual life. 
This consciousness being lost through their lapse from a 
state of rectitude, there remains, under the law of heredity, 
these instincts looking out, searching restlessly for their 
natural correspondence in the unseen environment. Science, 
it seems to us, is compelled by its great law of continuity 
to predicate of this instinct as of all others; it has its„cor- 
respondence, is adjusted to something in the environment. 
But manifestly there is nothing in the visible environment 
answering to it; indeed, there cannot be, from the very 
nature of the instinct. 

It must be admitted, then, by true science to have its cor¬ 
respondence in the invisible environment, to be adjusted to 
a power in the unseen universe, even to the “ force that makes 
for righteousness,” which science is compelled to recognize. 
But men do not pray to a wall, to dead matter, or to deaf 
force; the very nature of the instinct forbids this, makes it 
even absurd. This instinct, then, brings man face to face 
with God, the infinite Creator, and presents the whole race 


107 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

standing uncovered before him, and looking face toward 
him expectantly. 

§ 69. Instinct of Worship. We proceed to consider 
very briefly another element of human nature, so universal 
as to entitle it to be regarded as an instinct. We allude to 
that in man, manifested in all races and all ages, that leads 
him to worship some real or imagined supreme being or 
beings, or things which are conceived to represent such 
being. 

We note a strong evidence of this worshiping instinct in 
the positivists of to-day, who, having dethroned God, striv¬ 
ing to blot out the very idea of his existence, have found it 
necessary, impelled by this instinct, to establish a worship 
of humanity. What stronger proof can be asked ? 

Since writing the above, we have read a paper on “ Evolu¬ 
tion of Theology,” by Huxley {Nineteenth Century for April, 
1886, p. 493), from which we make the following extract: 

A theological system.exhibiting the same fundamental 

conceptions respecting the continued existence and incessant inter¬ 
ference in human affairs of disembodied spirits prevails, or formerly 
prevailed, among the whole of the inhabitants of the Polynesian 
and Melanesian Islands, and among the people of Australia, not¬ 
withstanding the wide differences in physical character and in grade 
of civilization which obtain among them. And the same proposi¬ 
tion is true of the people who inhabit the riverain shores of the Pa¬ 
cific Ocean, whether Dyaks, Malays, Indo-Chinese, Chinese, Japan¬ 
ese, the wild tribes of America, or the highly civilized old Mexi¬ 
cans and Peruvians. It is no less true of the Mongolic nomads of 
Northern Asia, of the Asiatic Aryans, and of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans; and it holds good among the Dravidians of the Dek- 
kan and the negro tribes of Africa. No tribe of savages which has 
yet been discovered has.been conclusively proved to have so poor a 
theological equipment as to be devoid of a belief of ghosts and in 
the utility of some form of witchcraft in influencing those ghosts. 
And there is no nation, modern or ancient, which even at this mo¬ 
ment has wholly given up the belief, and in which it has not at one 
time or other played a great part in practical life. 



108 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

We have here from Mr. Huxley a statement of the uni¬ 
versality of the worship of invisible beings, which certainly 
justifies our claim that it is an instinct of humanity, and in¬ 
deed in the same paper Mr. Huxley calls it an instinct. 

§ 70. Instinct of Accountability. There is also found 
in all men in all ages what may be called an instinct of ac¬ 
countability. It cannot be denied that mankind has always 
given evidence of this feeling—not simply accountability to 
one another, to society, and to the government under which 
they were living, but to an unseen power; to the God or 
gods who had, or were imagined to have, control over the 
destinies of men. And with this consciousness of accounta¬ 
bility there has always been manifested a consciousness of 
guilt—of sin—in recognition of not having been obedient to 
the divine laws, nor having lived in accordance with the 
Supreme Will. Hence the smoking altars, the sacrifices that 
have been offered from of old among all peoples. Search 
wherever we will, in the history of whatever people of an¬ 
cient or modern times, this fact stares us in the face: Blood, 
for sin, has ever flowed upon millions of altars in every 
part of the world and among all nations. The question has 
ever arisen in the human heart, “How shall I propitiate the 
gods? Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sins of 
my soul? or will multiplied oblations suffice?” This 
instinct, for undoubtedly its universality compels its recog¬ 
nition as an instinct, cognizes a Supreme Ruler, whose law 
it is man’s bounden duty to obey. Now, remembering that 
under the universal law of instinct in any animal any in¬ 
stinct whatever has, and must have, in the environment, 
that to which it is adjusted—its correspondence—science 
must recognize in the environment a somewhat to which 
this instinct corresponds, and since there is nothing, there 
can be nothing to which it is adjusted in the visible universe, 
then its correspondence must be sought in the unseen universe. 
This instinct, then, also brings us face to face with God. 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 109 

Before proceeding further in our argument, we pause to 
point out that all these elements in man’s nature bring him 
into relation to the invisible; and, while they furnish us a 
broad, well-defined line of demarkation, unmistakably sepa¬ 
rating man from animals, they as certainly demand his 
continued existence in the invisible universe under the 
great law of continuity universally accepted by scientists. 

§ 71. Aspirations for Immortality. We observe fur¬ 
ther, in addition to these instincts, and ever pointing in 
the same direction, that men in all ages have been pos¬ 
sessed with the idea of a future existence. In utter igno¬ 
rance of any tiling beyond death—the catastrophic end of 
every living earthly organism—knowing nothing of the how 
or whither , yet there has ever been in the human heart a long¬ 
ing for immortality; a terrible fear of the catastrophe of what 
to mortal vision seems extinction, annihilation; a starting 
back shudderingly from the dark, the gloomy grave —among 
the conscience-stricken throng a terrible foreboding “of 
wrath and fiery indignation that is about to devour the ad¬ 
versaries;” among the righteous a glad expectancy of un¬ 
speakable blessedness that awaits them in the presence of 
their Lord. 

In view of all this, we ask, Can science predicate such 
clumsiness, such great error in nature’s otherwise perfect 
work? Do nature’s great laws of adaptation, of instinct, 
of evolution, of continuity, hold universally, inexorably 
throughout the almost infinite chain of living organisms, 
from the protozoans to mammals, to man, and here sudden¬ 
ly break? We fail to see how science can find rest in such 
conclusions, such entire break in the law of continuity. Man 
as a mere animal would furnish the great exception; hut 
nature admits of no exception. We affirm, then, in view 
of all this, that a just contemplation of nature herself leads 
inevitably to a reasonable certitude of man’s immortality. 

And herein we find pointed out unmistakably, as it seems 


110 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature. 

to us, the new line of evolution of which we have spoken 
before. It is in man’s spiritual nature. The how? the 
whither? Ah! we see but dimly, vaguely along a line 
that stretches ever upward—“ Beloved, now are we the sons 
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall he; but 
we know that when he shall appear we shall he like him; for 
we shall see him as he is.” (1 John iii. 2.) 

It has been objected that if life must be taken to be an 
entity, wherever found, and not a function of structured 
matter (as shown in Section 20), and if in man it must be 
recognized as being possessed of the attribute of immortali¬ 
ty, then, wherever found, it must be taken to be possessed 
of the same attribute. To this objection we answer that it 
by no means follows, since we cannot say that all entities, 
not matter, are indestructible, and therefore immortal. It 
would appear probable, indeed, that though immaterial it 
is indestructible; and this may be true of all life, and yet 
there be no immortality as we understand the word, since 
this includes the idea of conscious personality as well as in¬ 
destructibility. 

Man has the attribute of conscious personality, and it is 
by no means certain that any other animal has. Besides, 
it will be noticed that we claim that nature teaches man’s 
immortality, not because his life is an entity, but because 
the attributes of this entity imperatively denounce his classi¬ 
fication in a kingdom higher than the animal, even among 
the immortals, leading us to regard the physical organism 
not as the very man, but rather as his vestment—his habi¬ 
tation for a time only—while the very man, the Ego, is a 
spiritual and immortal being. Besides, science leads us to 
predicate indestructibility of all entities as well as of matter 
of force, of energy; and therefore by a parity of reasoning, 
of the entity, we denominate life. 


CHAPTER XI. 


§ 72. Duty of Science. We fully recognize that it is 
the right —nay, we go further and admit that it is the duty 
— of every man of science to account for all phenomena of 
nature by the forces known to reside in matter, living or dead, 
so far as possible, and to build his theories solely on the 
known laws of material things. But when tentative theories 
accounting for the phenomena of nature have been proposed, 
however beautiful, however rational they may appear, we 
hold that it is his bounden duty likewise to put them 
to the test of experiment whenever possible; to examine 
carefully whether they are affirmed or contradicted by 
known facts of nature, and, where the testimony of facts is 
adverse to the'theory, it is his duty to seek for some other 
explanation of things. The theory so contradicted cannot 
be true. 

Therefore, while we do not fail to see the beauty, the in¬ 
tellectually satisfactoriness of Mr. Darwin’s theory of the 
origin of species, we cannot receive it as accounting for the 
existing order of things, because we find it flatly contra¬ 
dicted by the records in the rocks. Nowhere do we find 
the innumerable links between species postulated by that 
theory. Nay; it may well be doubted if in any single case 
one such link is found. Further, the rocks bear abundant 
evidence that in numerous instances species appear without 
any known precursors— e. g., the trilobites, by no means low 
among crustaceans; and in the sub-kingdom of vertebrates, 
the ganoids, during the later part of the upper silurian. 

The fossils of the horse family, brought to light by Pro- 


112 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

fessor Marsh, often quoted in support of the theory of evolu¬ 
tion, are generically different, not specifically; and while we 
candidly admit that they render probable—scientifically cer¬ 
tain, if you will—that the present species of horses was de¬ 
rived through that line, we utterly deny that they furnish any 
proof whatever of what is known as the theory of evolution 
from species to species by gradual change; since, as we have 
before shown, the rocks prove, if they prove any thing, that 
the passage from species to species was always per saltum. 

Science, then, it would seem, must seek some other way 
of accounting for the order of things visible. And if she 
cannot account for the sublime order from the action of 
merely material forces, she must, as it seems to us, cognize 
a force outside the material resident in, and operating or¬ 
derly through, these forces, and the recognition of this 
“force that works for righteousness,” even the Supreme 
Will, working all things according to the system devised by 
his own infinite wisdom, becomes inevitable. And why 
not? Has not science taken just such a step in the recog¬ 
nition of the luminiferous ether, impelled thereto by the 
phenomena of forces transmitted to earth from the sun, 
forming a conception of the nature of that somewhat from 
the phenomena? 

§ 73. Agnosticism. Ill questioning nature at whatever 
point the scientist starts, and along whatever line he pro¬ 
ceeds, he very speedily arrives at a point where further 
questioning finds no answer, beyond which all is dark—an 
abyss of utter darkness. Immediately around him he finds 
a small space fully illumined by nature’s truths and laws; 
beyond all is dark, whence no single ray of light meets his 
intellectual eye, no smallest whisper of voice meets his wait¬ 
ing ear. When he asks the how of things nature affords no 
answer. When he asks the whence of things the only an¬ 
swer he receives from nature is, “ Not from me.” But when he 
asks the why of things, nature points with steady fingers to 


113 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

man, the only solution; and when he further asks the 
whither of things, nature points, with outstretched hands, 
to the line of further evolution, sketched above, an ever- 
ascending line from evolution to advolution, through ever 
higher and higher realms of light, powers, dominions, prin¬ 
cipalities, until the ever-ascending line is lost to vision amid 
the transcendent glories of the throne divine. “ It doth 
not yet appear w r hat w T e shall be.” 

Herein is agnosticism; the scientist, fully recognizing 
facts, knows nothing of the how or the whence of things. 
Phenomena are patent to his gaze, but as to the how of things 
producing them he knows, he can know, nothing. So far 
he is agnostic. Is it not, then, irrational in him to ignore 
the being of God because he cannot know the how of his ex¬ 
istence or the nature of his substance, while the phenomena 
of his presence are seen everywhere? Having eyes, he sees 
not; having ears, he hears not; and because the how of Him 
is, and must ever be, unknowable, he leaves Him, the only 
unconditioned Being in the universe, out of the category of 
things existent. Here is agnosticism with a vengeance. 
But we ask if the agnostic scientist leaves God out of his 
category, why does he feel compelled to recognize the exist¬ 
ence of the luminiferous ether, which also is only known 
by its phenomena, being itself part of the unseen universe, 
and absolutely as unknowable as God himself, who like¬ 
wise manifests himself everywhere in nature ? 

The agnostic, if we understand his position, refuses to 
accept the postulate of an infinite, omnipresent, personal 
God, because such a being is unimaginable. To such per¬ 
sons we simply reply that the how of all things existent is 
also unimaginable. 

All scientists accept the chemists* doctrine of atom, be¬ 
cause it is necessary to a comprehension of the law's of chem¬ 
istry ; yet the atom is utterly unimaginable. They accept 
the postulate of the ether, yet with the properties facts 
8 


114 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

compel science to assign to ether. It is also unimaginable. 
Science accepts the fact of gravitation, yet that takes its 
place in the same category. It is inconceivable. 

The sense of direction possessed by some animals—as the 
bee, the homing pigeon, horses, cattle, dogs, cats, etc.—is a 
well-known fact in nature, and yet is utterly unimaginable 
by man, who cannot conceive of a sixth sense. Further, 
the existence of matter itself as to its how , or ultimate nature, 
is beyond the scope of the human intellect. It is also un¬ 
imaginable. 

Ehrenberg describes the Bilin Tripoli as composed of the 
shields of animals, forty billion of which are contained in 
a cubic inch, and science accepts the fact; yet they are 
certainly unimaginable. The infinitely small and the in¬ 
finitely great are both unimaginable; yet science hesitates 
not to accept both in nature. Finally, the author knows 
of nothing in nature the investigation of which does not 
speedily bring the scientist to a point beyond which all is 
utterly beyond his ken, is unimaginable. 

The refusal, therefore, to accept the postulation of an 
infinite, omnipresent personality, simply because he is un¬ 
imaginable, is utterly unscientific. The only question 
science can properly ask is this: Do the facts and history 
of nature, as known to us, require this postulation ? If so, 
science ignores her own laws, becomes unscientific by refus¬ 
ing to recognize his existence. 

§ 74. In Section 3, page 10, the author quoted from Mr. 
Huxley as follows: “That if any one is able to make good 
the assertion that his theology rests upon valid evidence 
and sound reasoning, then it appears to me that such the¬ 
ology must take its place as a part of science.” And from 
Mr. Frederic Harrison: “We say that life and conduct 
shall stand for us wholly on the basis of law, and must rest 
entirely in that region of science where we are free to use 
our intelligence, in the methods known to us as intelligi- 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 115 

ble logic, methods that the intellect can analyse.” We 
there, accepting the terms of both, proposed to establish 
our theology on “ valid evidence and sound reasoning,” 
claimed as necessary by the one, and on “ the basis of intel¬ 
ligible logic,” as required by the other. 

Our theology, thus far considered, is very simple, viz.: 
(1) God Almighty, Creator of all things, infinite in nature, 
omnipresent, benevolent, infinite in goodness, joying in giv- 
ing joy, immanent in all nature; (2) man, having an im¬ 
mortal spiritual nature capable of loving and serving God, 
his Creator and Benefactor, instinctively reaching after 
God, restless and unhappy till he find him, the law of 
whose spiritual being is to possess God and to enjoy him 
forever, advancing toward him in endless evolution. 

Let the reader judge whether or not, on the terms spec¬ 
ified, we have made our theology a part of science. 


CHAPTER XII. 


§ 75. Retrospect. Having followed thus far the line of 
investigation we had marked out, feeling at every step that 
we were treading on firm ground, and that nature herself 
bears clear, unmistakable evidence of man’s immortality, 
before proceeding further in our argument to trace the new 
line of development or evolution indicated, we pause to re¬ 
trace briefly certain conclusions arrived at in the course of 
our investigation: 

1. We call attention to the fact that while our system was 
being developed from the primordial nebulous matter, and 
while earth was still measurably inchoate, an evolution was 
started on a new line—viz., vegetal life was introduced in 
the fucoi, and while development proceeded on this line to 
culminate in the phenogam, evolution was started on still 
a new line—animal life began in the systemless protozoan to 
proceed progressively to culmination in man. Now we have 
seen that the law of continuity demands that evolution pro¬ 
ceed on still another new line. The question recurs as to 
the how and the whither of this new line of evolution. Does 
nature tell us any thing of its beginning, nature, and direc¬ 
tion? Let us see. 

2. We have seen that evolution on the first line was of 
dead matter alone, in preparation of a home for organic life, 
and that the evolution toward a perfected world was car¬ 
ried on by the properties of dead matter assisted by living 
organisms under the directive agency of the Supreme Will. 

3. And when a new line of evolution began to un¬ 
fold in the vegetal kingdom, the material or stuff of the 
kingdom below (the inorganic) could not lift itself into the 


Christianity in Accord with Science. 117 

kingdom above—in fact, was dead to it, could know nothing 
of it, and must ever remain so until the living organism in 
the kingdom above it, reaching down, laid hold of the dead 
matter, assimilated it to itself, and thus introduced it into 
its own kingdom. 

4. So also when the new line of evolution began in the 
animal kingdom, the vegetal, having a loiver form of life, 
was dead to that new life, could know nothing of it, could 
not possibly lift itself into the kingdom above, and must 
ever remain in this condition until the life of the higher 
kingdom, reaching down, takes hold of the vegetal organ¬ 
ism, assimilates it to itself, and thus lifts it (transformed) 
into its own kingdom. 

5. We have also seen that the law of biogenesis has been 
established as true beyond controversy. No life without 
antecedent life—true for all kinds of life , for this the law of 
continuity demands imperatively—all vegetal life from an¬ 
tecedent vegetal life, all animal life from antecedent animal 
life, and what hinders our going on to say all spiritual life 
from antecedent spiritual life. 

§ 76. But before proceeding on this line of argument let 
us remark that as dead matter must necessarily be ignorant 
of vegetal life, and the vegetal be ignorant of animal life, 
being dead to it (see Section 23), so must the natural an¬ 
imal life in man—in other words, the natural man—be dead 
to the life in the higher kingdom, the spiritual kingdom, 
the kingdom of God. The natural man, then, is and must 
ever be ignorant of the life in what we call the kingdom of 
God until it be revealed unto him from this higher king¬ 
dom ; nay, we go further, and say he cannot comprehend it 
when revealed unto him; he must needs enter into that 
kingdom in order to come to a knowledge of the kind of life 
its subjects enjoy. Just as matter must be born into the 
vegetal kingdom in order to know its life , and as the vegetal 
has to be born into the animal kingdom in order to know its 


118 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature, 

life, so must man be born into the kingdom of God in order 
to know its life. 

Nay, law is exceedingly searching and far-reaching, and 
we may trace the parallel workings of this same law of life 
still further. Thus dead matter only is assimilated by the 
plant, and as the vegetal organism must die before it can 
be assimilated and come into possession of the animal life, 
just so this law of life tells us that the mind of the flesh, 
the carnal mind, in man must die before he can enter into 
the spiritual life, or rather this life take possession of him. 
But more of this further on. 

§ 77. Revelation Necessary. It is manifest, then, that 
man cannot of himself attain to any knowledge of a life be¬ 
yond the present, and, even should the fact become certain, 
cannot attain to any knowledge of the nature of that life— 
the life of the kingdom above him—cannot know any thing 
of the line in which the further evolution is to proceed. He 
needs, he must have a revelation from that higher kingdom 
of all that pertains to that life; and we may add that this 
he may assuredly expect if indeed there be any Being in 
that unseen universe that cares for his 'well-being, his hap¬ 
piness ; and that there is such a Being the entire line of ar¬ 
gument thus far goes to prove—indeed, makes certain. 

We have nothing to do at this stage of our investigation 
with those systems of doctrine that claim to be revealed 
from Heaven to man. We have said that man may as¬ 
suredly expect that God will in some way make known to 
him his will, if indeed conformity to that will be essential 
to man’s happiness, as it most assuredly must be in the very 
nature of things. But the Infinite One cannot be shut up 
to a particular mode in making himself known to his creat¬ 
ure, only always it must be under law. * 


* The author recollects reading somewhere an illustration of this 
fact. While a missionary was preaching to an assembly of benighted 



119 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

§ 78. A scrutiny of the conditions of the relation of God 
to his works, as made known by the great law of conti¬ 
nuity, will lead us to correct conclusions on this subject, 
and point us unerringly to the new line of evolution which 
we have been led to postulate. We feel that in tracing out 
these conditions we shall be treading on holy ground, where 
our steps must be reverent, for we shall stand face to face 
with God, our Creator, while we essay to ascertain some¬ 
what of his nature as revealed in his works. 

And first, we remark that the visible universe, the prod¬ 
uct of his infinite wisdom and power, must be regarded as 
the embodiment, the crystallization of the divine thoughts, 
and, since thought reveals character , must tell us of God’s 
character. 

All things in the universe, visible and invisible, are, as 
we have seen, under the reign of law, which fact secures the 
harmony and beauty of the glorious cosmos—the outcome 
of his action in all the energies of nature. 

Worlds of inconceivable grandeur, projected into space ' 
under gravitating laws, cycle within cycle, in paths im¬ 
mense beyond conception; solar orbs infinite in number, 
each with its retinue of planets revolving around some 
other distant sun, the completion of its orbit requiring mill¬ 
ions of our years; and this central sun, with its vast family 
of suns with their retinues of planets, revolving around 
some still greater orb, and so on in numbers vast beyond 
conception. Behold the scientific conception of the vastness 
of the domain of God! 

§ 79. Turning now to one of the innumerable family 
of planetary worlds—which but serves as a sample of all the 
rest, as continuity assures us—to earth, we ask what earth 

heathen in the wilds of Africa, and telling them about Jesus, a 
woman in the congregation cried out: “ This is he who has come to 
me. I didn’t know who he was.” The spirit of God had anticipated 
the missionary in the work of saving that woman. 



120 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

has to tell us of God, and what answer does she give? We 
cannot particularize here—it were needless—but hear a 
voice coming everywhence, proclaiming the wisdom, power, 
glorious goodness of God, in the happiness for which all 
living beings were made, as we have seen in the articles on 
adaptation (Section 35, et seq.f 

The forests of a thousand hills clap their hands to God; 
the oceans’ rolling waves, with their unnumbered millions 
of happy living things, from the leviathan to his tiny food, 
roll his praise to either shore. From ocean, air, and land 
the glad sound comes up in glorious symphony, proclaiming 
the lavish kindness of earth’s Lord and King. He is then 
“ good, and his mercy endureth forever,” evermore joying 
in giving joy, and blessing all his creatures. And observe 
that he is one and his law one in all the universe and the 
laws of nature are but the expressions of God’s mind, his 
way of doing things, and therefore give explicit assurance 
of his character. 

§ 80. The law of each species arises from the nature 
given it in its creation—the features of its structure, internal 
and external—so that the law of each is coeval with its cre¬ 
ation, and this is absolutely true of every species in each of 
the kingdoms into which things are classified, whether min¬ 
eral, vegetal, or animal. 

In the mineral, for example, the law of each element is 
but the expression of the properties that distinguish each 
from all the others, as Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Car¬ 
bon, Phosphorus, etc., differ in their properties, while all 
are controlled by the laws of matter as such, their peculiar 
properties determining their mode of action, which is their 
law. * 

The same is true in the vegetal kingdom, in all the spe¬ 
cies from the sea-weed to the phenogams; so that if any two 
individuals have the same characteristics, law, science, 
classifies them in the same species. 


121 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

The same truth holds in the animal kingdom, from the 
protozoan—through trilobite, ganoid, reptile, mammal—up 
to man. Thus is the law of each being coeval with its 
creation. 

§ 81. Again, as we have seen, continuity binds all things 
to order of harmony; the matter of the earth is the matter 
of all worlds, so that the same laws prevail throughout the 
visible universe, and, as continuity assures us, throughout 
the invisible universe as well. And as there are diverse 
orders of living beings on earth, so must there be different 
orders of living beings in all worlds; and as things seen on 
earth culminate in a race of immortal spiritual beings— 
the final cause of earth—so the law of continuity leads us 
infallibly to postulate of all other planetary worlds; and 
since spiritual beings have no necessary relations to matter, 
to further postulate of space, that it also is replete with im¬ 
mortal spirits, the happy servants and children of their Lord 
and King, rejoicing ever in his presence, doing his behests; 
and these also of diverse orders—angels, archangels, cheru¬ 
bim, seraphim, first-born sons of God, ever blessed with the 
light of his countenance— their life. 

§ 82. We proceed to point out that the order and har¬ 
mony of the material universe is maintained by the fact 
that matter is continuously under the law of gravitation, 
and that if that law should fail of observance by any world 
that world would rush to remediless ruin, and if suspended 
in all, the whole universe would be involved in irretrievable 
chaos and ruin. 

And that vegetals only thrive when under the law of 
their species. The palm or banana could not thrive in 
Arctic regions, nor indeed in a temperate climate; they 
must exist under the law of their species, or be exterminat¬ 
ed as the result of the disregard of that law. 

Just so of all the unnumbered species constituting the 
animal world. The species of the tropics perish if trans- 


122 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

planted to the north, those of arctic regions if removed to 
torrid climes; mountain species perish in a champaign 
land; and so on to the end of the chapter. No species of 
animals voluntarily transgress the laws of their existence, 
being controlled by instinct, which leads them infallibly in 
the path of their nature; and if involuntarily , they inevita¬ 
bly perish. 

Thus speaks the law of continuity. Omnipotence itself 
cannot change the result without changing the law of the 
creature, which would be changing the species , since the 
characteristics of a species and its law are co-ordinate. 

§ 83. Referring now to Mr. Herbert Spencer’s definition 
of life (see Section 17), it will be seen that where the cor¬ 
respondences between the internal faculties and the environ¬ 
ment do not exist—where the adjustment between the inter¬ 
nal and external relations fail—there is, there can be, no 
life. This we have seen illustrated in the case of vegetal 
and animal life; the adjustment failing, life ceases— that is, 
the law of the creature’s existence or nature being broken, 
life becomes extinct. As this is true in all physical nature, 
so-also must it be true by continuity in the spiritual realm. 
The spirit’s life consists in the adjustment of its faculties, 
will, sensibilities, and perceptions to its environment, which 
in this case must needs be the Omnipresent Spirit; so that 
substantially the spirit, though immortal, is dead, w 7 hen out 
of harmony, not in accord, with God. While in accord, 
in harmony , perfect adjustment of the spirit with God is 
life and peace and blessedness forever. These are clearly 
the deductions of reason and sound logic in the premises, 
since intelligent spiritual beings must proceed from God, 
and must, therefore, in the measure of each, partake of the 
divine nature, bear the image of their Father. 

§ 84. Accord with God is therefore the law of their be¬ 
ing, and under the law of continuity must be their life. 
While in harmony throughout their being with God, they 


123 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

live in the light of his countenance, and are perfectly 
blessed, while if this harmony be disrupted, broken, 
there is alienation from God; the correspondence ceasing, 
there is death; the adjustment between the internal and the 
environment being broken, they pass into darkness; the 
light of God’s love no longer illumining, they are in outer 
darkness, ruin, death. 

And what does this mean? It means that as God is 
holy, it is impossible for the unholy to enjoy him, have 
peace and happiness in his presence; that God being good , 
the vicious are necessarily at war with him; that God, joy¬ 
ing in giving joy, the selfish must be at an infinite moral 
distance from him. 

Thus, then, we see that accord with God being the law of 
intelligents, antagonism to him must necessarily be utter ruin. 

§ 85. We reason thus on this subject, that as the creature 
of earth is endowed with organs of sense by which it is co¬ 
ordinated with material things, and has intercourse with its 
earthly environment, so the spiritual being must have 
somewhat to answer to these organs, must have faculties 
by which it is co-ordinate to its environment—the Omni¬ 
present Spirit. And as the organs of sense in the one, when 
in normal healthy condition, are avenues of pleasure, of 
delight; as the healthy eye is charmed by all the glorious 
beauty of air and earth and sky, of flowery mead, and 
forests of the plain and mountain; and as the ear is de¬ 
lighted with the harmony of music, when in normal state; 
and as, when the eye is inflamed, light becomes the source 
of intolerable anguish, and when the ear is diseased the 
sweetest music becomes as jarring discord, source of acutest 
pain, just so must it be with the spiritual essence. When 
all correspondence with, all adjustment to, God, its envi¬ 
ronment, has failed ; when its spiritual faculties, no longer 
in their normal state, have become diseased, the very pres¬ 
ence of God must become a source of intolerable anguish— 


124 immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

it must needs strive to get away from God, must prefer 
rather the outer darkness to the light of his countenance, 
no longer light to that spirit. God has become to it “ a 
consuming fire.” 

§ 86. Following this line of thought, we find that mail’s 
law arose from the nature given him in his creation, and 
that this nature proceeding from God must have partaken 
of his character. Man must have been holy, pure, good, 
liberal, just, loving God and all his fellow-creatures—must 
needs have borne the image of his Father, God. Man 
could not have begun in a state of savagery, as some imag¬ 
ine, and since the historic period be slowly emerging there¬ 
from. 

Our great law of continuity leads us, by the laws of log¬ 
ical reasoning, to this conclusion: He must be a fallen 
creature; must now, as we have affirmed elsewhere, be in 
an appalling state of unnature—fallen from his high estate 
—or else, what? Why, he must be an anomaly, the only 
one in all nature —must in his own person present the great 
exception in nature’s otherwise perfect laws. This conclusion 
the established law of continuity, established as the very 
foundation of science, utterly prohibits. 

§ 87. Let us now, in the light of these conclusions, en¬ 
deavor to point out the new line of evolution which we 
have predicated of him. 

Now and here we find him, as we have before shown, of 
dual nature—animal and spiritual; the animal with its 
passions, lusts, instincts, looking only to earth and earthly 
things, destined to meet after a little while the inevitable 
catastrophe of all other living things of earth; the spirit, 
co-ordinated to earth through and by the physical nature, 
yet itself an immortal entity thirsting for truth, with an 
intellectual nature searching into the laws of all being, en¬ 
abling him to dominate all things in his earthly environ¬ 
ment; with spiritual instincts inherited from his earthly 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 125 

progenitors, ever reaching after God “ if haply he may 
find him” (Acts xxvii. 27), and yet obscured, overridden by 
the things of the flesh, if without help—certainly in a de¬ 
plorable condition; still, ever having a certain feeling of 
want, restlessness, longing for he knows not what; never 
satisfied, expecting, hoping, in his insane delusion, that he 
will find satisfaction and rest in power, wealth, pleasure— 
all in vain, as witnessed by the universal experience of 
mankind. As to earth, the conclusion of the whole matter 
is, “ all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” 

§ 88. In this condition we find in him the lost child, the 
prodigal son who has squandered in riotous living all his 
father's goods given to him for improvement and continual 
betterment. But what of the Father? Can he, the infinite, 
the blessed One, behold all this continually in all his chil¬ 
dren of earth, and make no move, do nothing to help them 
up out of their ruin? The law of continuity will not permit 
such conclusion. He must do all that is possible to be 
done wider law to retrieve the ruin. And this, we are 
sure, he does in the case of every individual of the lost 
race, his spirit ever striving to deter from evil and to 
allure to good, to lead the lost child to his Father’s bosom. 

§ 89. Further, we have seen the line of evolution from 
protozoan to man w T as ever in increasing cephalization— 
enlargement of brain capacity—the working implement of 
mind; and since there can be no further evolution on this 
line, no higher tribe than man, the further evolution must 
be found in man himself, in the increase and growth of the 
spiritual entity in all that constitutes the wealth and glory 
of being—increased nearness to God—in the exalted realm 
of spiritual existences* 

And as the evolution must be under law, it becomes nec- 


* Man certainly presents in himself an example of the compre¬ 
hensive type of which we have spoken before. 




126 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

essary to recur more minutely to man’s law as a spiritual 
entity. First we find in him a capacity for God; that 
the divine Creator has endowed him with capacity of re¬ 
ceiving more and more of the divine effluence, so far as we 
can see, without limit; that there is a holy of holies in the 
human soul, a temple to be filled by God himself, that no 
created being can fill. 

§ 90. Second, that God being driven from this temple by 
its defilement, there results what we have called an instinct 
Godward—a looking, searching, longing for God, leading to 
prayer, worship, and an effort to atone for sin. 

Third, that the law of man as a social being was neces¬ 
sarily a law of love —love leading to the establishment of the 
family and all that is meant by this relation, the union of 
families in organized communities, etc. 

Fourth, a consciousness of the obligation of the ought 
and of the ought not , a consciousness of the .radical distinc¬ 
tion between right and wrong, virtue and vice; and final¬ 
ly an emotional nature, capable of being stirred to its 
depths by the true, the beautiful, and the good, and more¬ 
over eminently plastic in its nature; and to all this we 
must add, as directing, controlling the whole fabric of his 
moral and physical nature, a capability of deciding his 
own destiny, an absolute uncontrollable freedom of will 
that Omnipotence itself cannot, under law, destroy; and 
when we further observe that, in fallen man, this will is by 
an unnatural nature adverse to God—alienated from him— 
it will be seen that all spiritual betterment must begin in 
the turning Godward of this royal, reigning will. 

§ 91. This turning of the will to seek and serve God must 
then, in the terribly lapsed condition of fallen man, be the 
starting-point in the new line of evolution which we have 
been led to postulate of the ruined race; the child must be 
led to say, “I will arise and go to my Father; ” he must de¬ 
termine to seek to know his Father’s will, and as far as in 


127 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

him lies, to do that will. And reasoning from the relation 
established between God and his creature, whose entire 
destiny depends upon his attaining to a knowledge of the 
divine will, and a determination to seek to do that will, 
we are necessarily led to the conclusion that God will, in 
the case of every child of man, do ail that he can do 
under law to lead him to this decision, and wherever he 
fails to accomplish this result it must arise from the per¬ 
versity of the individual—the determined antagonism to 
God and right and duty, the allurements of pleasure and 
passion and lust—the “ lust of the eye and the pride of life” 
keep back the lost child from being enfolded in the loving 
Father’s arms. We further observe that this will to serve 
God being present, the Father’s help may surely be expected, 
because it is sorely needed, and will necessarily be asked. 
Man has, as we have seen, the instinct of prayer, and no 
longer prays to he knows not what, but goes to his Father 
for the supply of all his needs; and thus, by his Father’s 
help, is led to the practice of virtue, and to all acts of piety, 
to devout worship—is, indeed, transformed by the renewing 
of his mind, and becomes, so far as his internal state is con¬ 
cerned, a new creature —and now first he attains to a knowl¬ 
edge of spiritual life, now his affections are drawn God- 
ward, he loves God his Father, and his fellows all as his 
brethren, the children of a common Father, and is restored, 
in his measure, to man’s normal condition, the first great 
law of love. And thus through prayer and worship and 
loving service of God, in the practice of all virtue and the 
avoidance of all vice, he becomes pure and holy, conformed 
to God’s will in all things. 

§ 92. Referring now again to Mr. Spencer’s definition of 
life (Section 17), we find here correspondences of the inter¬ 
nal with the external, between the faculties of the spirit of 
man and the environing God, the highest conceivable life, 
a continuous adjustment of the “ internal relations to the ex- 


128 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

ternal relations; ” and as these can in their very nature nev¬ 
er fail, we have practically that which Mr. Spencer only 
imagined as a scientific possibility—viz., “ eternal life and 
universal knowledge.” 

And while there may seem to men but little difference 
between him and other men during the life of earth, there 
is essentially a vast, an almost infinite difference, a difference 
extending to every fiber and ramification of essential char¬ 
acter. The one is of the earth earthy, the other is living in 
loving communion with the Infinite One, the Lord of heaven 
and of earth; the one getting farther and farther from God, 
walking in darkness, the other walking in that light which 
is the life of men, advancing ever in swift progression near¬ 
er and nearer to God, allied more and more closely to his 
living Father, until he shall lay aside the “ earthly house of 
this tabernacle,” when, an immortal sanctified spirit, he 
shall enter into the open vision with the angelic host of the 
infinite God. 

§ 93. And whither now this evolution? Animals on 
earth have had their culmination in their various tribes, 
followed by decline and extinction. But here we have an 
evolution in an ever-ascending line. 

We may further observe, for hither are we led by our 
line of thought, that as the former evolutions of earth were 
by degrees with an untold number of grades between the 
fucoi and the phenogam on the one hand, and between the 
protozoan and man on the other hand, and an inconceivable 
distance in magnitude of mind; so there are innumerable 
grades between the state of the man at the moment of his 
resolution, “ I will arise and go to my Father,” when this 
new evolution began, and his final state,when, a disenthralled, 
glorified spirit, in the endless future he shall stand by the 
side of the first-born sons of light, the peer of the foremost 
of the heavenly host. 

This is the eternal lile and the universal knowledge im- 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 129 

agined by Mr. Spencer, and realized in him who has entered 
this final evolution, which, in its ascending heights, is never 
to find a culmination. This is the outcome of our follow¬ 
ing the leadings of the law of continuity, and hence, the 
reasoning being throughout scientific , and the logic intelligible, 
establishes our theology on the basis of essential truth as a part 
of science. (Section 3.) 

9 


CHAPTER XIII. 


§ 94. Having now established our theology, as we believe, 
on a scientific basis, we proceed to inquire if Christianity, 
as revealed to us in the scriptures of the Old and New Tes¬ 
taments, answers in any degree—and if so, how far—to the 
requirements of science. And, in the first place, we remark 
that these scriptures teach most clearly the existence and 
character of God, in agreement throughout with the deduc¬ 
tions of science. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, 
and that will by no means clear the guilty.” (Ex. xxxiv. 
6, 7.) “ My spirit shall not always strive with man.” (Gen. 

vi. 3.) Then his spirit does strive till man proves incorrigi¬ 
ble. “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 
Cor. iii. 9.) How clearly do these passages set forth God’s 
existence, and working to save men from ruin, as deduced 
by science from consideration of things made! And in the 
next place they (the holy writings) teach as manifestly the 
immortality of the soul, and set forth the eternal life most 
clearly to the children of men. “ For I know that . . . 
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my 
flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and 
mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job xix. 25-27.) 
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Cor. xv. 53.) “ Who 
hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortal¬ 
ity to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim. i. 10.) 

§ 95. And we go further, and say that the teachings of 
the Master and his apostles in the Gospels and the Epistles 


Christianity in Accord with Science. 131 

will be found to correspond in every particular with the 
deductions we have made from a review of the laws of 
nature. Christianity, as thus revealed, must be received as 
the religion of science, as we now proceed to point out 
w r ith greater particularity. But before doing so w r e recur 
to the definition of life as given by Mr. Herbert Spencer 
(Section 22), which, although telling us nothing of the 
essential nature of life, does clearly set forth the phenomena 
that proves its presence and well serves our purpose. From 
the principles established in Sections 22, 23, as deduced from 
Mr. Spencer’s definition, noting that they are necessarily 
applicable to all life, we are inevitably led to the conclu¬ 
sion that the natural man (in his state of unnature) is, and 
must forever remain, dead to the life of the spiritual king¬ 
dom of God, since there is in him no correspondence of 
the internal attributes with his spiritual environment, no 
adjustment of “the internal relations to the external rela¬ 
tions,” which are the environing spirit of God, and we 
find this fact abundantly affirmed in the Christian Script¬ 
ures—indeed, lying at the very foundation of their system 
of truth. Thus: “ She that liveth in pleasure is dead while 
she liveth.” (1 Tim. v. 6.) “To be carnally minded is 
death.” (Rom. viii. 6.) To be carnally minded is to be 
limited in one’s correspondences to the environment of the 
natural, the physical man. “ Arise from the dead, and 
Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph. v. 14.) “ Who were 

dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. ii. 1.) “ Even when 

we were dead in sins.” (Eph. ii. 5.) “You being dead in 
your sins.” (Col. ii. 13.) “ But is passed from death unto 

life.” (John v. 24.) But it is needless to quote fur¬ 
ther to prove the position of Jesus and his apostles on this 
point. 

In predicating of the natural man that he is dead, we do 
not mean to be understood as affirming that he is incorrigi¬ 
bly wicked or a monster of vice, or, indeed, to affirm at all 


132 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

of his character—that he is virtuous or vicious—but simply 
to point out that the fleshly mind, by its very nature, is 
enmity against God—has no correspondence with, no ad¬ 
justment to him, the very fountain of life. This carnal 
mind has life most certainly, but it is wholly of earth, and 
tends earthward continually, and is, in fact, of so low a 
nature when compared with the higher, the eternal life, as 
not worthy to be called life at all. To this truth, we further 
remark, the testimony of the modern world gives abundant 
witness. What is the modern system of agnosticism but a 
sad testimony to this truth? They recognize not God, 
proclaim him unknowable; but what is this proclamation 
but a confirmation of the testimony of Paul, that “ the nat¬ 
ural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for 
they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned?” 

§ 96. The New Birth. Hence we see the scientific neces¬ 
sity of the great truth announced by Jesus, “ Ye must be 
born again.” Ye must enter into the higher life, or rather 
the higher life must enter into you. “ Unless a man be 
born from above [for this is the meaning of avwdsv], he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” As the mineral can¬ 
not enter into the plant life unless the plant life reach down 
and lift it up into its own kingdom, thus making it partaker 
of the plant life, it must remain dead—a mere mineral for¬ 
ever; and as the plant cannot enter into the animal life, 
nor become partaker of that life, unless the animal life 
reach down into the vegetal kingdom and lift it up into its 
own kingdom, making it partaker of the animal life; just 
so the natural man cannot be partaker of the life 
of the higher kingdom, the spiritual kingdom of God, 
unless the life of that higher kingdom, descending, lays hold 
of his spiritual organism and, lifting it up, makes it partaker 
of its own life. This is more, much more than mere analogy— 
it is law, even a scientific necessity. Thus does natural law 


133 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

affirm the teachings of Jesus on this point of supreme im¬ 
portance , because thus only can man enter upon that new 
line of evolution that our discussion has led us to postulate. 
Observe that Jesus says cannot enter. He does not say will 
not , but cannot , simply because a new birth is necessary to 
a new creature, which the Christian is to be; and hence it 
is the only gate of entrance into the new way, the new line 
of evolution which we are considering. 

§ 97. New Line of Evolution. Having been brought 
into this new line of evolution, let us proceed to inquire 
what provision has been made for the Christian’s continued 
life and growth therein. Shall we find this provision to 
proceed along the same line of law established for other 
kinds of life? As we have seen, the law of biogenesis holds 
here as everywhere, and the law of continuity demands 
that in every respect the universal laws of life should be 
found to hold. 

The child, being born into the world, finds itself at once 
in correspondence with its environment; the eye in corre¬ 
spondence with light, the ear with sound, the lungs with the 
air, the heart with the blood, the stomach with appropriate 
food provided by the environment, and through the adjust¬ 
ment of internal to external relations it lives; and just as 
long as the correspondences continue it will continue to live. 
Some of them may cease and still it may live, but then only 
a lesser life. When others more essential to life cease, 
fail, life ceases. It is now dead, a mere thing to be put out 
of sight. 

One of the most essential of these correspondences is 
doubtless that between the stomach and food, by which the 
animal organism is sustained in life. Through this corre¬ 
spondence food taken is digested and assimilated for the 
repair of the wear and waste inseparable from all material 
things, any surplus of assimilation going to growth, increase 
in stature, and complete manhood. 


134 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

§ 98. Now a little consideration will show that the same 
law of life and growth holds in the spiritual life, and is 
definitely provided for and laid down in the teachings of 
Jesus. 

In and through the new birth one comes into corre¬ 
spondence with, we were going to say, a new environment. 
Not so, however; he is only brought into new relation to an 
old environment, which he had not recognized previously— 
even the essential life, of which it has been said, “In him 
was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John i. 4.) 
This all-pervading life being that “ in which we live and 
move and have our being,” is the medium which surrounds 
the new-born spiritual babe, with which its entire spiritual 
organism is brought into correspondence, breathing its air, 
assimilating its spirit, growing more and more into the like¬ 
ness of the living Christ. 

Here and here only we have correspondences, unfailing, 
of an immortal organism, with an eternal environment, per¬ 
fect adjustment of internal and external relations—perfect, 
eternal life and universal knowledge, imagined only by Mr. 
Spencer, actualized in the Christian man. 

§ 99. The Bread from Heaven. The proof of this? It is 
the simple and sole provision for continuance of life and 
for growth in the Christian system. “ My father giveth you 
the true bread from heaven.” (John vi. 32.) “ I am the 

bread of life.” (John vi. 35.) “ I am that bread of life.” 

(John vi. 48.) “This is the bread which cometh down 
from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am 
the living bread that came down from heaven; if any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread 
that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
the world. . . . Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, 
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. . 

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed 


135 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in 
me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I 
live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live 
by me.” (John vi. 50-57, et seq .) 

Again, is this mere analogy, and as such no proof from 
nature? Nay; it has been shown already to be the law of 
all life—that of the plant, that of the animal, and hence, 
under the law of continuity, that of the spiritual life. 

We pause to ask in what other system of religion is this 
wonderful conformity to natural law found? 

§ 100. Having now, as we believe, set clearly before our 
reader the nature and direction of the new line of evolu¬ 
tion, which we have clearly revealed to us by the laws of 
continuity, and having seen how and how alone a man can 
enter upon that line through the birth from “above,” we 
proceed to point out more fully, under the law of life , how 
the persistence of the eternal life is provided for in the 
Christian system. Of course it will be seen at once that 
exactly as the life of the lower kingdoms is preserved by 
assimilation of food appropriate to each individual organ-, 
ism, so the spiritual life can only be sustained by the recep¬ 
tion and assimilation of the new-born babe’s appropriate 
food. Paul calls it the “ sincere milk of the word.” Jesus 
declares it to be his flesh and his blood; he declares himself 
to be “the way, the truth, and the life”—the way, since 
through him alone we can enter into life; the truth, as the 
appropriate food of the spiritual entity; the life, since he 
dwells in and vivifies everyone who truly believes in him. 
“ Now I live, yet not I, but Christ that lives in me,” says 
Paul. 

Thus it is only by assimilating the living Christ that we 
grow into his image and likeness. 

§ 101. The Vine and Its Branches. The living union 
between Christ and the believer in him Jesus sets forth un¬ 
der the similitude of a vine and its branches: “I am the 


136 Immortality of the Soul Voiced hy Nature, 

vine, ye are the branches; ” “as the branch cannot bear fruit 
of itself unless it abide in the vine, neither can ye unless ye 
abide in me.” Note that the living sap ascends through 
the vine into the branches, and thus, and thus only, they 
continue to live. Just so the Christian lives only by the 
life of Jesus in him, through which alone he is able to pro¬ 
duce fruit, the real phenomenon that proves the life of the 
branch. Again, as the body cannot continue in life but by 
assimilation of food, so the new life must be sustained by its 
appropriate food. And we should as sedulously supply 
food to the new life within us as to the body; otherwise the 
life cannot under the inexorable laws of nature continue, 
the starveling must necessarily perish. We must feed on 
God’s word, and ever, in prayer and communion, seek unto 
Christ our life. And, doing this, we need not be careful or 
anxious about our growth in him. “Consider the lilies, 
how they grow,” simply by being in the conditions essential 
to growth; nature takes care that they grow. Just so the 
believer in Jesus, being careful to keep himself in the con¬ 
dition of growth, Jesus, his life, will take care of the 
growth. “ Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. ” 
It only behooves the believer to see to the conditions of 
health, of growth. 

§ 102. Again, referring to Mr. Spencer’s definition of 
life, having entered into the new correspondences that 
mark the spiritual life and become a new man, the Chris¬ 
tian now hates what before he loved, and loves what before 
he hated. 

And following the same line of thought, he not only should, 
but must cultivate the new correspondences, and as far as 
possible cut off, kill, the old; those correspondences of the 
natural man that are hostile to the new life must be killed 
outright. “No man can serve two masters;” the old man 
must be crucified with Christ, and buried out of sight. He 
must no longer walk after the flesh, but be led by the spirit 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 137 

that dwells in him * Walking thus, the Christian grows 
up into his living Head in all things; makes progress in ho¬ 
liness, and becomes complete in him; is “ changed from glory 
to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 

It will readily be seen that the principles here laid down 
are in direct accord with the natural principles heretofore 
discussed in these pages—that is, are in accordance with the 
laws of nature. All in the new life, the new line of evolution, 
is governed by the same laws of life, in whatever domain 
we may consider them. As, for illustration, the assimila¬ 
tion of food is essential to the plant and to the animal life, 
so the assimilation of the food provided for the spiritual 
life is essential to the continuance of that life. 

§ 103. And as exercise is essential to the strength and 
proper growth of the animal, so is use (exercise) essential to 

*See how, in accordance with these deductions of science, Paul 
states the 'fundamental principles of the Christian system. (i For the 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from 
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it 
was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the like¬ 
ness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that 
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the 
flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the 
spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; 
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carml 
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot 
please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so 
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not 
the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the 
body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of right¬ 
eousness. . . . Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the 

flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall 
die; but if ye through the spirit do mortify [kill] the deeds of the 
body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
they are the sons of God.” (Rom. viii. 2, et seq. to verse 14.) 



138 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

the spiritual growth of the Christian. “ To him that hath 
shall be given;” and as in nature unused faculties are 
taken away (as sight from the cavern fish), so the unused 
grace shall be taken from the Christian—“ take from him 
the talent, and give to him that hath ten talents,” and “ from 
him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he 
hath.” 

§ 104. We have in the preceding pages discussed those 
laws of nature only which seemed to bear directly on the 
matter under consideration. There are doubtless other laws 
which, if fully understood, would be found to bear val¬ 
uable testimony to the same truths—the immanence of God 
in all things and man’s immortality. To only one of them 
we invite attention—viz., to the great law of love which 
has been foreshadowed in much of our discussion, a law 
manifested in all things in the universe, visible and invisi¬ 
ble ; a law emanating from the very core of the divine nat¬ 
ure, for “ God is love.” 

This feature of the divine character, so clearly set forth 
in the Christian scriptures, leads us to inquire if it has not 
left its impress in law on his creatures. And on examina¬ 
tion we find that it has done so, more or less clearly, so that 
it is presented to our contemplation as an established law 
of nature. And first it is seen in the sexual and family 
relations foreshadowed in the constitution of vegetal life, 
being especially manifest in the higher division of the phen- 
ogams, while its working is concealed in the cryptogams; 
it becomes markedly manifest in almost all tribes of ani¬ 
mate beings, being concealed in a few only of the very low¬ 
est tribes, as in the cryptogams. Established as the work¬ 
ing order of living beings, it is an essential attribute of the 
animal world, upon which very much of its happiness de¬ 
pends. This fact admits of unlimited illustration, but we 
deem it unnecessary to dwell further upon it, since the 
reader will at once see its truth. 


139 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

§ 105. Outside the sexual and family relations the law is 
no less manifest; least so, however, among the tribes of 
preying animals, whose lives are generally (not always) 
solitary. Yet among these we often see manifested deep 
affection for the hand that feeds them. 

Turning now to all other tribes of animals, we see the 
law strikingly manifested, as in gregarious animals—the 
herbivorous especially—who often assemble in herds, and 
manifest great affection and care for each other, in mutual 
defense from enemies, and in other ways; and thus, also, in 
innumerable species of other animals. 

The law is, however, perhaps most strikingly manifested 
in those instincts that form communities, as in the various 
species of ants and bees, the individuals of the several com¬ 
munities often displaying the greatest affection for each other. 

§ 106. Is this the law of humanity also? We think it is, 
undoubtedly, the most fundamental law of man’s nature, 
though but a travesty of it is manifested in fallen man, he 
being, as we have before shown, in an appalling state of un¬ 
nature; still, as human society is, and has been in all ages, 
the workings of this law may be seen among all races; 
many a Damon and Pythias have glorified humanity in all 
ages by their friendship. 

But we have another view of the subject that, to our 
mind, demonstrates this to be the very primal and chief law 
of humanity. What if supreme love to God, as manifested 
in Jesus, and equal love to all men as to self, reigned in the 
hearts of all men? On what a gloriously high plane would 
not all the nations, tribes, and families of earth live! No 
more penal laws needed, no more cruel wrong, no more vio¬ 
lence, assassinations, robberies, seductions; no more wars, 
standing armies, jails, penitentiaries, scaffolds. 

This, then, must be the law of humanity, since, if obeyed, 
it would lift man to the highest possible state of happiness, 
would bring back again Eden to earth. We have seen in the 


140 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature. 

progress of our argument that all laws of animal life work 
to the happiness of the possessor; hence the inference is 
unavoidable that whatever tends most to this happiness in 
an animal species must be taken as a law of that species. 

§ 107. We have already seen that the fundamental prin¬ 
ciples taught by Jesus and his apostles are in direct ac¬ 
cord with natural laws, and we now desire to point out the 
striking conformity to this law of the same teachings. 
That it lies at the very foundation of the Christian super¬ 
structure—indeed, Jesus affirms the entirety of the law of 
God to be contained in two precepts—viz., “ Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and 
thy neighbor as thyself.” Be it noted, Jesus laid down no 
new law in this regard; it was the old law from the very 
beginning of the human race. “ On it hung all the law and 
the prophets.” He re-affirmed the law, and in his teachings 
applied it to the various relations of men to their God and 
to each other. 

The law was always the same; but previously men in 
their lapsed condition did not find themselves in accord 
with law. They could not obey it, “ because the carnal 
mind [mind of the flesh] is enmity against God; for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” 
How, then, shall men love him? how the impure love in¬ 
finite purity? how the vicious love the infinitely good? how 
the guilty love the law that pronounces their doom? how 
the condemned criminal love the judge pronouncing the 
sentence of death? How, indeed? 

The chief glory of Christianity lies Just here. Not that 
it propounded a new law—that was impossible. Man , to be 
happy, to fulfill his proper destiny , must be brought into ac¬ 
cord with the laws of his being * Happiness conferred in any 

* To point out how scientific Christianity is in this regard, we 
quote but a single passage: “ Seeing ye have purified your souls in 



141 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

other manner would simply unman man; since to change 
the law of a species is, as we have seen, to change the species. 

§ 108. The glory of Christianity, then, consists in this: 
That it, and it alone of all religions, makes abundant and 
adequate provision for man’s restoration to accord with the 
primal law of his being. To this it is absolutely necessary 
that he should be born again—born from above, become a 
new creature, in that now he loves what before he hated. 
To love God and his fellows is now no longer against his 
nature, no longer difficult; the law is no longer a bondage; 
to love is now spontaneous with him, it is his very nature. 

This is the very law of biogenesis—all life from ante¬ 
cedent life, vegetal life from vegetal life, animal life from 
animal life, spiritual life from antecedent spiritual life, 
and, under the law of biogenesis, that other law of conform¬ 
ity to type. “ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” That which is born 
of the spirit of Christ bears the image of, partakes of the 
type, the very inner essential nature of the living Christ. 
And as he, from his very inmost nature, loved his Father 
with an infinite love, and our poor sinful human race with 
an unspeakable love, so every one that is born of him bears, 
must bear , the same love to God and man. And as by its 
fruits the tree is known, every man, whatever his preten¬ 
sions, who does not exhibit in his life this loving character, 
must be set down as not born of God. 

This is the personal experience of every one who has 
entered into this personal relation to Christ. His first im¬ 
pulse is overflowing love—love to God his Father, who has 
saved him from the conscious guilt, through faith in Jesus’ 

obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the 
brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently ; 
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” (1 Pet. 
i. 22, 23.) 



142 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

saving grace; who has put a new song in his mouth, and 
filled his heart with a joy unspeakable and full of glory, 
and to all men—all God’s creatures—he longs to have all 
men enjoy the glorious baptism of the Spirit of the living 
Christ. And this loving, restful faith in God continues a 
permanent, ever-increasing possession, if only he keep him¬ 
self in the conditions of continued life. (See Sections 92, 93.) 

§ 109. Such was the condition of all the early converts 
to Christianity in apostolic days, and indeed in all the ages 
since. “Behold how these Christians love one another!” 
may be said of them in all ages. Such was the early 
Church; such is every true Church to-day. 

But, it will doubtless be objected, the history of the 
Christian Church does not manifest this all-pervading love. 
True, sadly true, else the whole world would be Christian 
to-day. But the thoughtful mind will be at no loss for the 
reason. 

That it is absolutely true, necessarily true of all Chris¬ 
tians, we have shown. What then? Why, to be sure, 
all that are in the Church, that call themselves Christians, 
are not really Christians; many of them bear not one sin¬ 
gle mark of the Christian life and character. 

It is a sad truth that wicked men, from motives of self- 
interest, having reference solely to worldly matters, have 
intruded themselves into the Church, as was indeed only 
to be expected, when to be thought a Christian is honora¬ 
ble and promotive of worldly prosperity; and unfortu¬ 
nately, such men, usually unscrupulous as to the means 
used, have succeeded in obtaining influence, rank, power 
in the Church of God. Christianity, then, must not be 
judged by the fruits borne by hierarchies which have 
deluged the earth with the blood of the martyrs, and 
cursed it by a bigotry and intolerance born only of the pit. 

However dark, sadly dark, the history of the Church 
has been in the ages past, be it noted that in every age 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 143 

there have shone forth thousands—nay, millions—of Chris¬ 
tian men and women, whose lives demonstrated that they 
were born of the God of love. 

§ 110. A little consideration will prove that abundant 
provision is made in the Christian system for bringing men 
into spontaneous subjection to this the first law T of their nat¬ 
ure—the law of love; that, indeed, it was the prime ob¬ 
ject of the gospel of Christ. Take it away, and there is 
nothing left. We have said that Jesus came to re-affirm 
the law and to establish it in the hearts of men; not to ab¬ 
rogate it, and thus relieve men of obligation to obey it; and 
this he accomplished by providing a means, through the 
use of which man’s inner nature is attuned to harmony with 
the law, so that obedience to it becomes natural to him. 
It is not within our line of thought to consider how or on 
what princijdes this was accomplished, but simply to point 
out the fact , as it appears to us, that he did accomplish it , 
and that ever since the day of Pentecost every one who truly 
believes in Jesus, receiving him as his Saviour, is, not will 
be, so changed in his moral nature as to be entitled to be 
called a new creature; so changed as to bear more or less 
in his spiritual nature the image of Christ. 

§ 111. To exhibit this fact fully as the teachings of 
the gospel of Christ one would needs quote very much 
of the Gospels and of the Epistles, in which it is every¬ 
where insisted upon. We quote a few passages only: 
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if 
ye have love for one another.” (1 John xiii. 35.) “Be¬ 
loved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and 
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 
He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” 
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one 
another.” “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 
and his love is perfected in us.” “God is love; and he 
that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 


144 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” 
“We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I 
love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 
iv. 8, et seq .) “ Owe no man any thing, but to love one 

another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” 
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh 
no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the 
law.” (Romans xiii. 8-10.) “If any man be in Christ, he 
is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all 
things are become new.” (2 Corinthians v. 17.) “For 
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, 
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature .” (Galatians vi. 15.) 
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is cre¬ 
ated in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians iv. 
24.) “And have put on the new man , which is renewed in 
knowledge after the image of him who created him.” (Co- 
lossians iii. 10.) Thus we see how strikingly Christianity 
conforms to the demands of scientific thought, answering 
at every point to the lines of natural law. Potential to 
bring back humanity to its moorings in the very core of 
nature, it must needs be true—such wonderful agreement 
in so many points cannot be merely casual. So plainly 
written are these great truths that he who runs may read. 

§ 112. In the preceding discussion we have seen that the 
new birth is essential as being the passage from the death of 
sin to the life of God—the spiritual life, called in the Script¬ 
ures the eternal life. We now proceed to consider this eternal 
life more fully, hoping to throw clearer light upon it, under 
the scientific aspect of life as set forth by Mr. Spencer. 

Referring again to his definition of life as “ the definite 
combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous 
and successive, in correspondence with external co-exist¬ 
ences and sequences,” with the remark before made that 
these correspondences certainly are not life, but phenomena 
evidencing the presence of life, we observe that the total 


145 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

absence of correspondence is death; and that the degree of 
life is marked by the number and degree of the correspond¬ 
ence, and that perfect correspondence with the whole 
environment would be perfect life, as before laid down. 
Thus, in the protozoan, the systemless animal, a mere 
speck of structureless jelly in a sack, with no organs of 
sense, life must have existed in its lowest form, there be¬ 
ing evidenced but a single correspondence with the en¬ 
vironment—the sense of touch, perhaps—and when during 
the progress of evolution organs of sense were differentiated, 
life in a higher sense was evidently manifested; the num¬ 
ber of correspondences was increased, while the degree of 
each correspondence was very limited, so that there was still 
a low form of life; and thenceforth the degree of the life 
was manifested more by the degree of the correspondences 
than by their number, since animals having five senses have 
the same number of correspondences with their environment; 
but these differ vastly in degree among the various tribes 
according to their habitation and the perfection of their 
organism. Thus, in the fish we find correspondences be¬ 
tween the eye and the light immediately around; but the 
whole world above the water, full of glory and beauty as 
it is, is to the fish as though it were not; the fish is dead 
to it. Breathing through its gills, there is correspondence 
between its gills and the oxygen in the water; it is dead to 
the atmosphere and all the world above, etc. The eyeless 
fish of subterranean waters is dead to light, having no cor¬ 
respondence whatever with it. 

The bird enjoys a much higher life than the fish, having 
a much higher correspondence with the outer world through 
the adjustment of its eyes to the light, of its organ of hear¬ 
ing to the music arising every whence around, of the corre¬ 
spondence between its lungs and the free air of its environ¬ 
ment, etc., while man, though he has only the same num¬ 
ber of correspondences with the other higher animals, has 
10 


146 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

a much higher life than any other of them, simply because 
through his senses, with his faculty of reason, he has a 
much deeper insight into the nature of things than is possi¬ 
ble for them. Through the correspondence between his eye 
and light the whole material environment is brought with¬ 
in his cognizance. Where the eagle sees only glimmering 
points of light, he sees revolving worlds—a glorious cosmos. 
And so of the rest of his senses in a greater or less degree. 

Man’s life is therefore higher than that of any other ani¬ 
mal, and yet, being in correspondence only with the visible 
environment, this life is, after all, only animal; and if 
the visible be only a very small part of all that is, this life 
of his may be so low as hardly worthy to be called life at all. 

§ 113. Let us look into this a little further. If a man 
have no eyes he is dead to light; to him it is as though there 
were no light in all the universe. If he is deaf he is dead to 
sound; to him it is as if there were no sound in all the 
world—no noise of moving elements, no song of birds, no 
music to cheer and gladden the heart—he is dead to all this. 
And so of smell and taste. He may lose all these corre¬ 
spondences, and still in some sense be alive; but he has a 
greatly curtailed life, and he may perchance live this life, 
dead to all the outer world, except through lungs and stom¬ 
ach ; but when any one of the vital correspondences fails, he 
is wholly dead. 

Now, to return to the thoughts above, if the visible be 
only a very small part of all that is; if it be but a mere frac¬ 
tion of the universe of God, and the least important part 
thereof; if it be but the portico, the vestibule of God’s glo¬ 
rious temple, then the highest life possible from fullest cor¬ 
respondence with it is of so poor a quality as to be unwor¬ 
thy to be called life at all. 

Now, observe further, if the man have no correspondence 
with the spiritual world, he is dead to that world, and if he 
have no correspondence with God, he is dead to God. 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 147 

§ 114. But notice here that we cannot say, as before, that 
it is to him as if there were no God, since there is a relation 
here that appals us. Paul says, “ Our God is a consuming 
fire.” What does he mean? We have said that if a man 
be blind he is dead to light; but what if he have eyes, and 
they are so inflamed that he cannot see? Is it as though 
he were blind? Not quite. The light is now intolerable; it 
is torture to his diseased eyes; it is infinitely worse than be¬ 
ing dead to light. And so if his organ of hearing be dis¬ 
eased, inflamed, it cannot be said that he is dead to sound; 
he is not, but all sound becomes a torture to him; the sweet¬ 
est music thrills him through and through with keenest 
anguish. 

Just so, if a man have no correspondence with God, while 
in the scientific sense he is dead to God, it is a terrible thing 
to him that God exists. Those senses of the soul whose of¬ 
fice is to apprehend God, to correspond with God (com¬ 
mune with him), to enable him to bathe, as it were, in the 
ocean of the divine love, being diseased, become a source 
of intolerable anguish. No need of positive infliction of 
penalty for sin; nature avenges herself upon the sinner in 
a most terrible manner; to him God has become “ a consuming 
fire.” This is death. 

§115. To return to our line of thought: Perfect corre¬ 
spondence with the entire environment is perfect life. And 
the man, being brought into correspondence with God, a 
relation that the Scriptures term communion with God, now 
possesses a fuller and a higher life, called by Jesus eternal 
life —not, be it noted, in regard to its duration, meaning 
thereby endless, though this it is, for the term is of quality, 
not quantity. It is the highest life possible, not to man 
only, but to all conditioned beings, since it is correspond¬ 
ence with the unconditioned, the Infinite One; henceforth 
the degree of life depends upon the degree of this corre¬ 
spondence. To this our line of thought leads us, that the 


148 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

chief difference between the principalities, potentates, pow¬ 
ers of the unseen universe must consist in their different 
nearness of approach to God. 

Having shown how the new line of evolution is entered 
upon by attaining to a new life through a birth from above, 
it may now be profitable, following the same line of thought, to 
inquire how advancement on the new line is best to be made. 

§ 116. Remembering that life is manifested by corre¬ 
spondences, and the nature of the life by the kind of corre¬ 
spondences, it will be seen that in the new birth, when the 
spirit of life from above enters the soul, and begets in it a 
life after its own type (Conformity to Type, Sections 27, 28), 
the old life that was in it was killed. Paul calls it the old 
man, and claims that in the new birth he was crucified with 
Christ, dead, and must (following the figure) be buried out 
of sight. Thus: “ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified 
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is 
freed from sin.” (Rom. vi. 6, 7.) 

“ That ye put off concerning the former conversation the 
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put 
on the new man, which after God is renewed in righteous¬ 
ness and true holiness.” (Eph. iv. 22, et seq .) 

“ Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the 
old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man , which 
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created 
him.” (Col. iii. 9, 10.) 

What is it, then? Seeing that life is manifested in its 
correspondences, if these be cut off the life that is manifested 
through them necessarily dies—perishes from want of nour¬ 
ishment. It behooves, then, the new man, born of the 
Spirit, having thereby entered into correspondence with 
God, to cultivate, keep up his correspondence with God 
through the vivifying aid of the Holy Spirit, that he may 


149 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

get into fuller and deeper correspondence (communion) 
with God. And that he may do this, he must cut off, as far 
as possible, the correspondences of the old man, manifesting 
themselves in the “ lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of 
the world.” (1 John ii. 16.) The necessity for this to him 
who would live a godly life is insisted upon in the New 
Testament scriptures especially, thus: “Dearly beloved, I 
beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly 
lusts, which war against the soul.” (1 Pet. ii. 11.) “And 
they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affec¬ 
tions and lusts.” (Gal. v. 24.) “But put ye on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill 
the lusts thereof.” (Rom. xiii. 14.) 

§117. Thus we see that the Christian system agrees at 
every point with the line of scientific thought. 

The correspondences with the things of the world must 
be cut off, so far as they antagonize correspondence with 
God. “ No man can serve two masters.” No man “ can 
serve God and mammon.” “ What agreement is there be¬ 
tween Christ and Belial?” what “between the temple of 
God and idols? ” “Ye are the temple of the living God.” 

The biological law is that correspondences grow and in¬ 
crease in strength by what they feed on, by indulgence; 
and the godly man will, must keep under strict control all 
correspondences of an earthly sort, and cherish and promote 
correspondence with God by frequent repetition. Herein lies 
his very life. 

Thus much on the repression of the correspondences of 
the old man, that the new man may grow in strength and in 
“the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” 

§ 118. Having considered thus, at some length, the duty 
of the man who has entered the new line of evolution, to 
kill, repress in every way the correspondences with outward 
worldly things, so far as they tend to lead from God (the 


150 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

negative side of the case), it would seem necessary to present 
at greater length, from a biological stand-point, the means 
of making progress along this new line. (Sections 89-94.) 

It must be borne in mind that under the law of conform¬ 
ity to type (Sections 27, 28) it is the life that builds up the 
organism. The organism does not constitute the life; it is 
not a function of that, but an entity manifesting its presence 
in the protoplasm by its peculiar phenomena—that the life 
provides for the growth of the organism to perfection, each 
according to its type, the bird being the incarnation of the 
bird life, and so of all the myriad species of vegetals and 
animals, a universal law, nature in every case supplying 
abundantly, in the environment of each, all that is neces¬ 
sary to growth; the organism has only to avail itself of the 
present material, and the life does the rest. Thus the plant 
is surrounded by an environment containing air, moisture, 
C0 2 , light, and heat, with soluble salts in the soil; and it 
has only to send out spodules from its roots and take in ap¬ 
propriate food. Life does the rest; it thrives and grows 
without labor or toil. “ Behold the lilies, how they grow.” 
And so of every individual in the animal world. Nature 
has provided in the environment all that is needed for the 
healthy, happy existence of the animal. All it has to do is 
to take of the abundance supplied what is needed for its 
sustenance; having done this, the life takes it in hand. The 
animal, having nothing more to do with it, could not con¬ 
trol its action if it would; the food is assimilated, and 
growth follows. 

Just so, in the new birth, the life of the higher kingdom 
descending into the soul’s protoplasm, forms it into a new 
creature after its own type, transforming it into the image 
of the living Christ, the holiness of love; and this new 
creature, breathing the atmosphere of the environing spirit 
of life, and assimilating its appropriate food, “ the sincere 
milk of the word,” will necessarily grow up in conformity 


151 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 

to its living head in all things, making it an incarnation of 
the Christ-life. (Section 89, et seq .) 

§ 119. Again, referring to biological law, the plant-life 
in a speck of protoplasm assimilates inorganic matter, and 
fashions it into a plant. Animal life in protoplasm assimi¬ 
lates dead organic matter, and fashions it into an animal 
according to its type; so then, under the law of continuity, 
must the spiritual life have a protoplasm in which to op¬ 
erate, building up in it and through it a living being after 
its own type. This is the law of all life, as we have seen; 
and, as in the case of the plant and of the animal, the sub¬ 
stance assimilated and lifted into the higher life must be 
dead as to that life. 

But it may be asked, What is this protoplasm into which 
the life from above enters? The substance of the proto¬ 
plasm of the plant and the animal is material , and the sub¬ 
stance assimilated is matter, and the organism physical. 
And so, since the life from above is spiritual, and builds 
up a spiritual fabric, the substance assimilated must be 
spiritual (mental). 

The protoplasm, then, into which the life from above en¬ 
ters must needs be of a spiritual nature. And as we know 
nothing of the essential nature of the lower life, so we can 
know nothing of the essential nature of the spiritual pro¬ 
toplasm; and as the lower life is only known by its phe¬ 
nomena, so only by these can the higher life be known. 

§ 120. The phenomena of the life in man are recognized 
in the mind and character, the will, the sensibilities, the af¬ 
fections, the moral nature. And as we have seen in the 
natural, the old man, all these are of the earth earthy, 
minding — having correspondence only with — worldly 
things. Now these are the clay of the potter, and the di¬ 
vine life entering into this clay must fashion it into a new 
man, so that in regard to these elements old things shall 
pass away, and all things become new. The analogy of 


152 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

the operations in this line to those of the lower natural bios 
might be extended; but we forbear, and proceed to remark 
that the wondrous results may be obtained in a new creat¬ 
ure. These elements must have two characteristics—viz., 
capacity for life and plasticity. 

1. Capacity for Life. In organisms of earth it will be 
noticed that all matter is not capable of being assimilated 
by the life force, but certain elements only which have ca¬ 
pacity for life. Now this is also true in this case. The 
protoplasm in man has a capacity for God. “ Herein lies 
its receptivity; it is the very protoplasm that was necessa¬ 
ry. The chamber is not only ready to receive the new life, 
but the guest is expected, and, until he comes, is missed.” 

In every age and in every land the human soul has 
yearned for God—pined after him; “ feeling after God, if 
so be that it may find him.”* (Paul.) 

In fine, we cannot but regard this as the final cause of 
this glorious world of ours—a birth-place and training- 
school of immortals, who should after awhile join the in¬ 
numerable throng of the blessed in the grand temple of 
which earth is but the vestibule. 

§ 121. 2. Plasticity. “Conformity demands conform- 

ability.” Now these elements in man are eminently plastic, 
easily affected, and often imperceptibly, by extraneous influ¬ 
ences; easily cultivated and strengthened in any given 
direction by the thousand influences in the environment of 
every one. 

As well exhibiting the plasticity of the human soul and 
the influence of untoward environment, we insert an article 
which has recently fallen under our notice: “ I live,” said 

* “ That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after 
him, and find him, though he be not far from everyone of us: for in 
him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your 
own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” (Acts xvii. 27,28.) 




And Christianity in Accord with Science. 153 

a gentleman lately, “ in a town near New York, and go to 
my business there and return daily on the same line of rail¬ 
way. The train in the morning and afternoon is filled with 
girls from ten to eighteen years of age on their way to and 
from schools in the city. They usually belong to families 
of the educated, influential class, and at home are careful¬ 
ly guarded from vulgar or vicious companions. They are 
not so guarded on the cars, and the result is soon apparent. 
For example, I remember about five years ago that a blush¬ 
ing little girl of fifteen was put on the train one morning 
by her father; her books were in an embroidered bag, and 
her ticket ready in her portmanteau. It was evidently the 
first time she had made the journey alone. She sat timidly 
in one corner, her color coming and going when the con¬ 
ductor spoke to her. She was a picture of innocence and 
modesty. After that she came down every day on the 
same train. In a day or two I noticed that she was listen¬ 
ing to the chatter of the other school-girls, at first with a 
mixture of disgust and amazement on her shy face. Pres¬ 
ently, as she became used to it, the disgust wore off, and she 
listened, smiling at their absurd gossip and jokes. 

“ In a week or two the conductor and brakeman recognized 
her as a familiar figure, and tipped their hats to her as she 
stepped on board. A little later they exchanged good- 
mornings and remarks about the weather; she apparently 
felt that civility required some answer. When, as weeks 
passed, the conductor, a vulgar young fellow, stopped be¬ 
side her seat to ask what was her school, and make remarks 
on her text-books, the girl, though frightened and annoyed, 
did not know how to dismiss him. 

“ Before the summer was over she had lost much of her 
shyness and helplessness; she came alone to the train, jumped 
on board and marched into the car like the others, with an 
air of perfect sang-froid. The girl was not to blame. It 
was the natural effect of her daily journeys without protec- 


154 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

tion. But the dewy bloom was fast going from the peach. 
Tn a year that girl entered the car as if it belonged to her, 
laughing and joking loudly with the other girls and the 
train-hands. She had lost all interest for me, and I ceased 
to notice her. One day, however, about a year afterward, 
the morning papers contained the account of the daughter 
of Judge Blank having eloped with a man who turned 
out to be a professional gambler. Their acquaintance, it 
was stated, began on the cars. It was the shy little girl. 
She might yet be shy and innocent and happy if her moth¬ 
er had not subjected her to the risks of that unprotected 
journey. No education can atone for the price paid for it 
in such exposure.” 

§ 122. Illustrative of the tendency, of correspondences 
with things of the environment that administer to appe¬ 
tite to obtain control, dominion, over the man until he is 
helpless to escape thraldom, we make extracts from another 
article in the same paper. Here is an extract of a letter 
from a man to his brother: “Ah! my dear fellow, I have 
three little children and a wife whose child-like and inno¬ 
cent life should have led me to better things. Many a care 
aud many a sorrow she has had since she married me, and 
many a time, God knows, I’ve been deeply penitent to 
have given her cause for grief. But I have the restless 
blood of a drunkard in my veins, and it carries me away 
to dreadful and disgraceful sprees. I promise, I swear off, 
I protest by all that’s good and holy that liquor shall never 
pass my lips again; but all to no purpose. A craving, a 
devil, takes possession of me, and after weeks, or even months, 
of abstention I break out and degrade myself aud shame 
my children, and heap misery on them and my wife. The 
old year is closing as I write, and the new comes up before 
me like an enemy. So much do I feel my weakness, that 
God may close my old life and open a hew and better one 
to me is the cry of my heart to-night; for if I do not 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 155 

find strength that the past gives me no hope of gaining, 
before the leaves of next summer wither I shall fill a drunk¬ 
ard’s grave, and leave my wife and little ones to the mercy 
of the world.” 

“ Surely that man never drank again! ” He was a lawyer, 
with a large and lucrative practice. Read: The man is drunk 
again. “ The little boys stole softly down, hand in hand, 
averting their looks of shame from the room where their 
father sat in a drunken stupor, and, standing by their 
mother, covered their faces in her skirts. . . . ‘ But 

you want to go upstairs, don’t you, Randall, dear? don’t 
you?’ said Lucy (the wife) very gently. ‘Yes, I wan’ to 
go ’pstairs; go’n’ set baby down first and give her toys. . 
. . ‘ Baby want to kiss papa ? ’ he said, and stooped lower; 

and then, before either of us could reach him, he fell forward 
full length, his whole weight crushing little Florry down. 
She cried out, and seemed to smother. The next instant he 
had rolled aside, and there the lovely little child lay bleed¬ 
ing at the mouth. The poor mother with a shriek lifted 
her baby to her heart. It sighed twice, and lay still. Ran¬ 
dall by my aid had reached his feet. The unutterable 
horror of his face I shall never forget. ‘Baby,’ he said, 
stooping down; ‘ baby, look at papa; baby, just once, look at 
papa. O my God! Lucy, have I killed my little baby 
girl?’ Even so it was. . . . We hardly knew when 

my brother recovered from the insanity of liquor, for it 
was followed by the delirium of brain fever. . . . He 

swore he would never look at liquor again, swore it by all 
that was good and holy. And even between his protests 
he said to me: ‘I can’t keep from it, Fred; I can’t, it’s too 
strong for me.’ . . . The demon that he had dared 

trifle with never left him afterward, and, searching for him 
after an escape in the night, we found him half naked, face 
down, quite dead, in a ditch.” 

§ 123. It will be seen that there was absolutely no hope 


156 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature , 

for this man except in divine interposition, and that was not 
to be had, because it was not sought in the means provided. 

The author knows a case strictly parallel except in its 

tragic end. Thirty years ago Judge D., residing in -, 

was a common drunkard and a profane swearer; to all 
human appearances hopeless to betterment. He visited a 
Methodist camp-meeting a few miles from his home. What 
occurred there the reader may imagine from the fact that 
after a day or two Judge D. returned home a new man— 
a man of clean lips and a clean life, and to the author’s 
personal knowledge continues so to this day. An appeal 
to facts! For more than eighteen centuries no decade has 
passed when millions of men and women were not ready to 
bear testimony to the power of Jesus’ name to save from sin. 

§ 124. But we have digressed from the purpose in view— 
viz., having shown how the death of the old man is to be 
made complete, it is now our business to show how the new 
man is to grow to maturity and be perfected in strength 
and health, after which a few words on the whither of this 
new line of evolution will close our work. 

How shall the Christian grow up into his living Head in 
all things? The law of biology will give a definite reply: 
First, by maintaining himself in the conditions of growth; 
second, by sedulously nourishing the new man with the ap¬ 
propriate food. This is his work, his sole work; the rest 
is God’s work. The plant grows and thrives in its environ¬ 
ment of air with its C0 2 , moisture, heat, and light, simply 
by absorbing food through its rootlets in the fertile soil; 
its life takes care of the rest. 

The animal remaining in its appropriate environment, 
and taking its appropriate food, grows to maturity, and is 
happy in its measure, the life-force taking care of its 
growth and the rest. 

Just so, of course, under the law of continuity must the 
new man provide for healthy growth, maintaining himself 


And Christianity in Accord with Science. 157 

in correspondence with Christ, his life; keeping himself in 
the spirit, not only on the Lord’s-day, but evermore; con¬ 
tinuously, by prayer and worship, feeding the inner man 
with “the sincere milk of the word” and with “the bread 
that comes down from heaven.” Doing this, he need give 
himself no care about the growth. The life that is in him 
will take care of this; it is not his business. “ It is God 
that worketh in him to will and to do,” while he works out 
his own salvation, simply by fulfilling the conditions as 
above given. “ Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s 
building.” (1 Cor. iii. 9.) He cannot grow if he tries. 
“Can ye by taking thought add one cubit to your stature?” 
“ Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do 
they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the 
field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, 

shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? ” 

§ 125. And the whither ; what shall we say of that? 
We cannot see all along that line. It is an ever-ascending 
line. So much we see, but it is but vaguely after all. 
While on earth the man of God grows stronger in all virtue 
and holiness; he finds rest in his Lord; he possesses the 
peace bequeathed to him (John xiv. 27), flowing as 
a river, ever wider aud deeper; complete in Christ, his 
Saviour (Col. ii. 10), “ his joy is often unspeakable and 
full of glory. He has grown from a babe in Christ to the 
full stature of the perfect man, until his “perfected love 
has cast out all fear.” 

And is this his culmination? Other tribes of animate 
beings have had their culminations, followed by decline 
and often disappearance. But what is man’s culmination ? 
An ever-ascending line has no culmination. What then? 
Hear what the beloved disciple says: “ Beloved, now are 
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall 


158 Immortality of the Soul Voiced by Nature, 

be like him , for we shall see him as he is.” Like him! Is 
not that enough? Who can ask or think more? “Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them 
that love him.” What more ? To what unspeakable height 
doth this evolution lead us? What? Only once do we 
catch a glimpse of those who have followed this line of evo¬ 
lution. After they have left the vestibule, and entered into 
the mansions prepared for the regenerated ones, and the 
man of Patmos, the beloved disciple, gives us that fair 
vision: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, 
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, 
and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms [insignia of 
victory] in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, say¬ 
ing, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb.” “ What are these which are arrayed 
in white robes, and whence came they?” “These are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; there¬ 
fore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day 
and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne 
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, nei¬ 
ther thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, 
nor any heat.” (Rev. vii. 9, et seq .) 

Here we lose sight of man in this ever-ascending line of 
evolution. But is this the end? What saith the law in 
reference hereto—the law of laws, the law of continuity? 
Evolution, still ever ascending higher and higher, in the 
fuller fruition of the life in him; higher and higher, until 
the redeemed, sanctified one, in completest communion with 
his God, is lost to view amid the glories of the throne divine, 
the peer of angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, thrones, 
dominions, potentates, powers, the first-born sons of God, who 
forever bathe in the ocean of their Father’s light and love. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


The author has briefly given in the preceding pages 
what he esteems the voice of nature in reference to man’s 
immortality. To him the argument seems complete—noth¬ 
ing wanting. Surely God has not left himself without a 
witness in all nature. 

But another short view of the whole matter has been of 
great benefit to himself, and this he adds here, supposing 
that some of his readers, who have not made a special study 
of the Christian evidences, may derive a like benefit from 
the argument it presents, from the internal evidences of 
the Christian revelation. 

When yet in his teens, more than fifty years ago, being 
then a cadet in the United States Military Academy at 
West Point, being troubled with doubts as to the truths of 
the gospel, he found rest from all doubt in the following 
syllogism: 

1. God wills man’s greatest good. 

2. Christianity is man’s greatest good. 

3. Therefore Christianity is God’s will, and hence man’s 
law. 

Of the truth of the first promise he had no doubt, since 
all nature proclaims God’s goodness in the abundant provis¬ 
ions made for the happiness of all creatures, as seen in 
their adaptation to environment, and in the law of instinct 
as briefly enough set forth in these pages. (See Sections 
35-44.) 

For proof of the second promise one must not look to the 
history of Christianity as seen in the histories of the Papal 
Church, or.of any of the other Churches that have been es- 


160 Supplement. 

tablished among men, for reasons already given (see Sec¬ 
tions 97-99), but to what it is essentially in itself, as de¬ 
clared in the teachings of its great Author and his apos¬ 
tles— i. e., love to God and to man established as the ruling 
principle in the individual heart. “The kingdom of God 
is within you.” (See Sections 92-96.) It cannot be de¬ 
nied that if every man in the world were a Christian ac¬ 
cording to the measure of the Master, universal peace and 
good-will would be established among men everywhere, and 
Eden be practically restored. It hence seems evident 
that the universal reign of Christ in the human heart is 
man’s greatest good, and hence the conclusion is unavoida¬ 
bly drawn. 

This argument would seem to be conclusive, even to the 
atheist, who, substituting nature for God in the syllogism, 
would reason thus: 

1. Nature wills (if an impersonal can be said to will) the 
greatest good of all creatures. 

2. Christianity (the dominion of universal love) is man’s 
greatest good. 

3. Therefore Christianity is the law of nature for the 
human race. 

The author commends this short view of the subject to 
all who have not the leisure or means of personal investi¬ 
gation into the Christian evidences, hoping that they, as he, 
may find therein rest from doubts. 










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